The Marauder's years 1st Year
by Monarchy of a Fangirl
Summary: Meet James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, before he became the traiter we all loathe, and join them for their first year at Hogwarts! Set in 1972-1973 and multiple POV. This is the replacement for the Lily Evan's diaries, so please enjoy and review!
1. Chaos on September 1st

_Hi, so this is going to be story that takes the place of the Lily Evan's diaries. I'm sorry for deleting them, I just couldn't bring myself to write the anymore and when you start dreading writing a chapter, that's a sign of it all going downhill! This will be much better because for one it won't be in diary format which I hated and it will be from lots of different character's points of view. So without further to do, may I present chapter 1!_

The marauder's years- First year

Chapter 1

James was excited, more excited than he had ever been in his whole life, this was it; he was finally going to Hogwarts! The place that his parents had told him about since before he could even remember. James had been waiting for eleven years to go to Hogwarts and now nothing was going to stop him going. Except perhaps his angry mother.

'James Charles Potter! If I come up to your bedroom right now and find that you still haven't finished packing, despite the fact that we are leaving for London in twenty minutes, you will not be going to Hogwarts!' Dorea Potter hollered up the stairs at her son and as she did so, some of her red hair came out of its usually neat bun.

James meanwhile was in his massive bedroom, and he was panicking. His trunk was open at the foot of his four poster bed and only half full. James had no trouble in believing his mother when she said that she would forbid him from going to Hogwarts altogether. Quickly he began to run round his room for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day, despite it being only quarter past ten, and throw stuff seemingly at random into his trunk. James only sped up his pace when he heard his mother's footsteps coming up the first flight of stairs.

By the time Dorea Potter had gotten up to the third floor, James was packed and ready, so when his mother came into his untidy bedroom James felt sure that he would be allowed to go to Hogwarts.

'James Potter, look at the state of this bedroom! Tidy it this instant!' Dorea Potter yelled again, but James held his ground and his hazel eyes flashed cheekily at his mother.

'I thought you said that we were in a hurry and that we were leaving in twenty minutes about nineteen and a half minutes ago.' Dorea looked around her son's untidy bedroom then down at her son. He had inherited her hazel eyes and need for glasses and that was about all that James had inherited from her. His untidy black hair, straight nose and height all came from his father who was currently sitting in the breakfast room, eating a slice of toast and reading the Daily Prophet, unperturbed by his wife yelling at his son.

Dorea sighed and then got out her wand and flicked it, causing the room to right itself almost instantly. James smiled at his mother and then grabbed his owl cage and took her downstairs. James himself had purchased his owl two weeks ago when his mother had taken him to Diagon Alley; his father had been too busy with work to come. James had brought the Tawny Owl and immediately named her Rena. Her amber eyes were surveying the chaos in the Potter household with great disdain.

'James Potter, where do you think that you are going?' James slowly turned to see his mother standing beside his trunk looking indignant.

'Downstairs to eat breakfast.' James replied slowly as though speaking to someone with handicap abilities.

'You haven't even had breakfast yet? Good Lord, just go grab yourself a stack of toast, I'll levitate your trunk downstairs. Thank goodness that we can take you by side along apparition.'

And with that James ran downstairs to the breakfast room, deposited his owl in her cage onto the table and went over to the massive buffet table that always held toast, many varieties of cereal, fruit, eggs done in every way possible, porridge, yogurt, honey, bread rolls, normal pieces of bread, bagels and cream cheese, bacon, sausage, butter, chocolate spread, an assortment of jams, orange juice, apple juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and for some reason that James couldn't quite comprehend, kippers. James simply helped himself to five pieces of warm toast, buttered them and sat down at the breakfast table with his father, who was just finishing his meal and newspaper.

'Ah James m'boy, are you looking forward to going to Hogwarts?' James nodded, but didn't speak because from a very early age he had been constantly told that it was rude to speak with your mouth full. At that moment James' mother came running in, looking flustered.

'When you two are quite finished having a nice little chat, I believe that James had a train to catch!' Charles Potter grinned at his son and they shared a private joke. Dorea Potter always got worked up over the smallest things, but at times like this, it was best just to humour her.

'Come on James!' Charles boomed and he stood up and walked over to where James' mother was standing, both looking at their son who was still eating his fourth piece of toast.

Once James was finally finished all five pieces of toast, and he had slipped an extra two pieces into his pocket, his mother bustled him out of the breakfast room and into the hall.

'James, your father is going to take you and I shall take your luggage. We will all meet at the entrance to platform nine and three quarters.'

James' father offered out his left arm to James and James took it, then his father turned on the spot and they were off into the compressing darkness that made side along apparition so horrible.

_So I hope that you liked the first chapter of this story more than the Lily Evan's diaries. I enjoyed writing this chapter more than the entire first year of the Lily Evan's diaries! Please review so I know what the general public think of my writing and thank you to all those who put any of my stories on story alert or do actually review them!_

_HRE x_


	2. The train ride to Hogwarts part 1

_So I'm going to try to update this story at least once a week, my posting new chapters day will be Saturday during term time and any day during the holidays! I hope that you all enjoy this chapter…_

Chapter 2

Sirius ducked through the hordes of people on platform nine and three quarters. He was trying to escape his mother and her pureblood beliefs, which Sirius thought was complete rubbish. He had always silently pretended to listen when his mother was talking about them, but not today and not ever again. Hogwarts was his salvation; Sirius just hoped that he wouldn't be put into Slytherin with the rest of his fanatical family. If he could choose, Sirius would choose Gryffindor any day, but would he fit the qualities of a Gryffindor?

Sirius was running by now through the smoke that was coming out of the train, he couldn't see anyone properly. But of course Sirius couldn't run very fast whilst he was still dragging a trunk and an owl cage. So to Sirius' misfortune he ran straight into his mother.

'Ah, Sirius my dear. Let's get that heavy trunk onto the platform, here let me levitate it for you! Now Sirius dear, make some nice pureblood friends, don't go around making friends with mudbloods or blood traitors. Especially avoided that Potter brat, I hear that he too is coming to Hogwarts this year, so make sure to hex him and not get caught. Of course you can always just b friends with you cousins, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda. Oh and that lovely boy that Narcissa is due to marry in four years, Lucius Malfoy. They are the right sort; they will set you straight and Regulas when he comes. We will see you at Christmas, so that you can tell us how lovely Slytherin is! Now my dear, the train will be leaving soon, let's get you on board so you can avoid all of those dirty mudbloods.'

And with that Sirius made his mind up that he would have to avoid his family at all costs, and that he would make friends with 'Potter' and as many mudbloods and undesirables as possible, simply to annoy his parents.

'Good bye mother, father and Regulas. I'll see you at Christmas.' Sirius attempted to smile at his family, but it came out more like a grimace. Then he hurried off into the scarlet train that looked impatient to be off.

Sirius passed several compartments that were already full and then he sat down in an empty one towards the back of the train. He had only been sitting there for three minutes when a black haired, bespectacled boy poked his head around the door and asked,

'Is there anyone sitting here?' Sirius looked the boy up and down, he seemed decent, so he shook his head and gestured for the boy to come in and sit down opposite him.

'So what's your name?' Sirius asked the boy.

'James Potter, nice to meet you and you are?' Sirius smiled, he had only been on the train five minutes and he had already met the boy whom he was determined to be best friends with, not just to annoy his mother, but he had also heard stories of how decent the Potter family were.

'Sirius.' Sirius didn't particularly want to say his surname, just in case to put James off of him before they had even had chance to properly get to know each other. Sirius knew that James had noticed the fact that he didn't tell him his last name, but he didn't question it for which Sirius was incredibly grateful.

'So what's your Quidditch team?' James asked to break the silence.

'The Chudley Cannons?' James sniggered and Sirius raised an eyebrow at him.

'Problem?' Sirius asked sweetly.

'Well- they aren't exactly very good now are they?' James asked supressing a fresh wave of giggles.

'At least I'm not a glory supporter!' Sirius said, 'who do you support?'

'Puddlemere United, I'm not a glory supporter, my entire family supports them!' James said.

'Sure they do James.' Sirius said mockingly. James opened his mouth to retort, but then the compartment door slid open and a pretty red head came in, it looked like she was about to cry.

'Is there- I mean, can I sit in here, please?' she asked in a choked voice.

'Of course you can.' James said very kindly. Sirius looked at him; he was using a completely different tone than the one he had just been using to talk to him.

'What's your name?' Sirius asked kindly.

'Lily Evans, what's yours?' she asked, whilst furiously wiping her eyes to try and stop the tears.

'I'm Sirius Black and this is the beautiful James Potter, at your service milady.' Lily smiled weakly at both of them.

'Are you ok?' James asked cautiously. Lily looked up at him suspiciously.

'Look, I know that you are only trying to help, but please, I'd like it if you both just left me alone.' She said, and with that Sirius and James left her alone, and went back to their previous conversation.

'I'm not a glory supporter!' James said to Sirius.

'Mmmmhhmmm, whatever you say. When do you think lunch trolley is coming round? I'm starving.' James opened his mouth to reply again, but he was interrupted by a small, sallow skinned, greasy haired boy who was already in his robes coming into the compartment. When he spotted Lily, his entire face lit up into a massive smile, then he saw that she was crying and he hurried over and sat opposite her. Despite Sirius' hardest efforts, he could hear every word of their conversation.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice.

"Why not?"

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?"

She threw him a look of deep dislike, which Sirius didn't miss.

"So she's my sister!"

"She's only a…" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.

"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little.

"Slytherin?"

At his words, both James and Sirius looked up at them.

"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked Sirius, he didn't smile at James' words.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said.

"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword.

"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."

Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him.

"Got a problem with that?"

"No," said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy."

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius.

James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Oooooo..."

James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed.

"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed.

'What's their problem?' Sirius asked.

'They probably have their wands shoved up their assses.' James replied casually as though he didn't really care.

Twenty minutes later, the lunch trolley came around and James and Sirius who were both starving jumped up and brought as much food as the six galleons between them could buy. For the next hour or so the compartment was quiet, other than the chewing of the food and occasional comments on the food. It was the beginning of a new friendship.

_Yes, I took some of that scene from Snape's memories in the Deathly Hallows._

_HRE_


	3. The train ride to Hogwarts part 2

_Ok, I'm uploading this chapter early because I'm in such a good mood right now, which is strange seeing as I have to go back to school tomorrow night...anyways, here is chapter 3 from our favourite werewolfs POV!_

Chapter 3

Remus hurried along the train looking into each compartment nervously, he was looking for an empty one, he didn't want to trouble or annoy anyone by asking to sit with them. By the time he had got to the back of the train Remus was close to tears, and he was about to give up and sit in the corridor for the rest of the train journey to Hogwarts, when he heard a noise from inside one of the compartments, and as he looked in he saw two black haired boys, about his age, sitting together and roaring with laughter at something one of them had just said.

Then the black haired boy sitting on the right noticed Remus and pointed him out to his friend, who also turned and looked. Together they stood up and opened the door. Remus was shaking, he hadn't meant to pry, he had only wanted a place to sit.

'Ah, look at him, he's shaking. Maybe he's cold.' The boy who was sitting on the left said.

'Or maybe he's scared of you Sirius, I mean, just look at yourself!' the other boy laughed and the boy, Sirius, looked offended.

'And here I was thinking that we could be friends James, you had to go and ruin that now didn't you!' James smirked back at him, then turned to Remus and said,

'Would you like to come in and sit down?' Remus nodded, but he didn't say anything. James grabbed Remus' trunk and with a little help from Sirius and Remus they lifted it up onto the trunk rack. Then the three of them sat down, panting and it was a while before anyone said anything, but when the silence was broken, it was by Remus.

'Th-thank you.' He stammered.

'That's quite alright,' said James, 'Now I don't think it's very fair that neither of us know your name and you don't know either of our names. I'm James Potter, pleasure to meet you.'

I'm Sirius.' Said Sirius, but he didn't say his last name yet again.

'My name is Remus Lupin.' Remus whispered hoarsely.

'So all three of us are first years?' James asked.

'I guess we must be, so Remus which house do you want to go to?' Sirius asked Remus.

'I wouldn't mind Huffelpuff, but I don't think that it's really the one for me, I would love to be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but I don't mind as long as it's not Slytherin. What about you two?'

They looked at each other, grinned and answered in sync,

'Gryffindor!' Then they both mimed pulling a sword out of its scabbard.

James wasted no time in telling Remus about the red haired girl, Lily and he black haired boy, Severus.

'So Remus, why do you think that they were so, stuck up themselves?' Remus smiled at both of the boy's blank faces, they really didn't know anything.

'Well,' Remus said, trying to choose his next words carefully, 'Put yourself in their shoes, your friend is crying, so you comfort them. And then, two strangers listen into your conversation, jump in, insult all of your views, insult you and your friend and then give you a mean nickname, how would you feel?'

Both of the other boys were quiet for a while, trying to digest what Remus had said. In this time Remus gave them both a proper look.  
James was medium height, he had hazel eyes and wore glasses, and his black hair was untidy and ruffled as though he had just got out of bed. When he was thinking hard he got crease marks between his eyes.  
Sirius was taller than James and he had broader shoulders than James, his hair was longer than James' and looked more groomed than James', his eyes were a stormy grey, just like the sea on a restless day.  
Remus felt quite shabby in comparison to both of these boys, he had relatively smooth sandy coloured hair and amber eyes, and he had used to have blue eyes before the incident that would forever change his life.

After Remus had explained all of this to them, they were silent for a while, until Sirius brought up Hogwarts, for none of them could contain their excitement to be going to Hogwarts finally.

'So what do you think that you guys will enjoy most at Hogwarts?' James asked.

'The food.' Sirius answered immediately.

'I'm actually quite looking forward to all the lessons, I mean there is so much to learn and I can't wait! I've already read all of my subject textbooks.' Remus said. James and Sirius exchanged a look and then burst out laughing. Remus looked at them in shock.

'What's so funny?' Remus asked, he was very confused.

'You are like the complete opposite of us, we do not study, nor do we open textbooks before we absolutely have to. We both have clear natural talent!' James said smiling at Remus.

'Fine, do a spell.' Remus said bluntly. Sirius and James extracted their wands, they looked at each other and then James performed the levitating spell and levitated one of Sirius' shoes that he had taken off a while ago. Sirius meanwhile was making rays of light come out of his wand. This went on for about five minutes, neither of them wanted to give in to the other. Eventually they stopped in the same second and the strain that they had been under became apparent to Remus. James' glasses had even shattered form the focus. Remus looked at his glasses then got out his own wand, tapped them and said,

'Oculus reparo.' At his words, James' glasses magically straightened themselves. James opened his mouth to say something, but then there was a booming announcement over the loudspeaker system in the train.

'We shall be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes, please make sure that you are already in your robes and leave your luggage on the train.' The three boys looked at each other and then out of the window, they hadn't noticed the sky get so dark in all the fun they had been having. They hadn't changed yet either, so as they felt the train slow down, they changed as fast as they possibly could in such cramped conditions.

Eventually the train stopped and the three of them walked off of the train and out onto the platform, then they heard a booming voice.

'Firs' years! Firs' years over here!' They all stretched up to see who the speaker was, then they saw a giant. He was simply far too tall to be a person. Sirius nudged both Remus and James and whispered,

'That's Hagrid, he's the gamekeeper here. He got expelled years ago, but no-one knows why.' James and Remus nodded to show that they had both heard and that they understood. They walked over to him and James smiled up at him.

'Hey Hagrid, I'm James, this is Sirius and Remus. We are going to be your favourite students ever!' Hagrid smiled down at them, but he couldn't say more as more and more first years were coming towards them. When Hagrid was sure that everyone was there, he walked off and called over his shoulder,

'C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!' They followed him down a steep slope that seemed to be quite perilous. Everyone was slipping and holding onto each other, James whispered something into Sirius' ear which Remus couldn't quite hear, they ran off in front of everyone else. Then Remus realised what they were doing. Both of them stretched out their feet and they were skidding quite fast down the slope.

Remus couldn't see them anymore, the darkness had swallowed them up, but he could still hear them. They were whooping and hollering at how much fun it was, then silence, then they both screamed and everyone heard two massive splashes. Everyone ran down the slope as fast as they could without sliding down it, and once they had rounded the corner, they saw that James and Sirius had fallen into the lake, and that they were now climbing out laughing and dripping.

Hagrid smiled in a bemused way at both of them and then said,

'Yeh get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts if yer jus' look up there.' Everyone looked up and on a rocky cliff; they saw the castle and its many turrets. It looked massive and many of the lights were on and glowing in the windows, these lights were reflecting in the black lake, that Remus suddenly realised that they would have to cross to get to the castle.

'No more'n four to a boat!' Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. James and Sirius jumped into a boat overly enthusiastically, then they looked around for Remus and when they spotted him, they beckoned him to join them. Once Remus was in the boat, a small, rat like boy jumped into their boat.

'My name's Peter Pettigrew, what's yours?' he said in a squeak.

'My name is Remus Lupin; those two clowns in the front are Sirius and James Potter. It's lovely to meet you Peter.' Sirius and James took the oars and were waiting in great excitement for Hagrid to say that they could begin rowing their boat.

'Everyone in?' shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. 'Right then - FORWARD!'

The group was silent, until about halfway across the lake, Remus heard Sirius whisper to James.

'Let's capsize this boat.' Remus sighed and both looked at me and he whispered,

'If you must.' James and Sirius broke into identical evil grins. Peter hadn't noticed anything; he was too busy gaping up at the castle. Sirius began to rock from side to side and then James began doing the same thing, Remus sighed again deeply as Peter realised what they were doing and joined in with an exhilarated smile. Too soon, the boat rocked quite violently and it broke apart, they all crashed through the boat and into the icy cold water of the unforgiving black lake. Peter screamed and Remus felt as though he had been submerged into ice. Hagrid looked round at them and sighed, then called out to them,

'Can yer all swim?' All four wet boys nodded.

'Well I'm sorry boys, bu' yer gonna have to swim to Hogwarts.' They swam behind Hagrid's boat and when everyone got out, Hagrid helped the four boys up to the shore. Everyone was staring at them, and they were dripping onto the stone floor. Hagrid turned to the four of them and said,

'I warn yeh now, Professor McGonagall isn't gonna be best please with yeh four, so mind yeh behave yerselfs now!' And with a feeling of dreadful apprehension in his stomach, Remus Lupin watched as Hagrid knocked on the grand door three times.


	4. Shining innocence

_Yeah I know I said that I would update Saturday, what of it? Sue me for enjoying writing fanfiction will you?_

_I should probably be writing a chapter from Peter's POV, but as he is my least favourite character, I'll only occasionally do that. But now for one from…Severus's POV, not only doing the Marauder's here! Also I'm not too sure if he has a middle name, I'm just going to leave it as he doesn't have one…_

Chapter 4

That massive oaf Hagrid knocked on the grand oak doors three times and as the doors were flung open by a severe looking woman, Severus felt Lily take his hand and looked down at their entwined fingers in shock and surprise. Severus felt warmth radiating throughout his body. And knowing that Lily was cared and turned to him for reassurance and comfort gave him an odd happy bubbling feeling in his gut.

'The firs' years, Professor McGonagall,' said Hagrid.

'Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.' The women whom everyone now assumed to be called Professor McGonagall lead all of the first years across the entrance hall. It was the biggest room that Severus had ever seen. Her heels clip-clopped over the flagstone floor and as they passed massive double doors, Severus caught sight of the great hall and the rest of the school, but Professor McGonagall lead them off to the right of it and made them stand all together.

'Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. Also I would like you four to come with me.' She pointed to the four dripping wet boys, Severus recognised three of them, two of them being the two boys who had been so moronic to him and Lily and the other he had seen pass by his and Lily's compartment several times.

They looked around as though expecting her to mean someone else, but when they realised that she meant them, they followed quietly, but before they rounded the corner, Severus saw the two black haired boys grin at each other and share a small high five. Severus rolled his eyes at them, so arrogant and proud that they had already got into trouble before they even began their education properly.

'Sev?' Severus turned quickly to see Lily, she was even paler than usual and she looked like she was about to faint.

'Are you ok Lily?' Severus asked in a low, concerned voice. Lily shook her head twice quickly, and then she stopped as though she was afraid that her head might fall off.

'What's wrong Lily?' Severus asked.

'I'm scared, what if there has been some horrible mistake and I'm not supposed to be here? Also what if I accidently kill someone with my magic, you know I'm not very good at controlling it!' Lily was panicking, that much was obvious, but it was Severus' self-appointed duty to make sure she stayed calm.

'Lily, look at me. Think about how strong you magic is, if you didn't show that magic and you hadn't received your letter you would not be here! Also this is why we are here, to train you to control your magic, and Lily; your magic isn't strong enough to kill someone accidently.' Lily smiled faintly up at him, and then she stood on her tip-toes and hugged him.

Severus never wanted to let go of her, her hair smelt sweet, like coconuts and her natural scent was beautiful and sweet like the Lily flower, but it wasn't overpowering. Lily was warm and soft and gentle, Severus knew that he would have to protect her and watch her closely at Hogwarts to make sure that nothing ever happened to change the shining innocence in her almond shaped green eyes. He couldn't lose her, he would go wherever she would go and he would cherish their friendship above all other things and Severus was determined to make sure that those two dreadful boys never went near his beautiful Lily, she belonged to him and no-one else. Severus nearly fell over as he felt such a strong wave of possessiveness wash over him, he always felt something like this whenever he was around Lily, but this was the strongest that this wave had ever been in his life, and if it kept getting stronger with the years, he didn't want to think what this wave and its potency might be like by seventh year. Also underneath the wave he felt longing, he longed to hold her hand all the time and have her smile at him and no-one else, he wanted to be the only one receiving of any of her wondrous hugs, Severus knew that he couldn't share Lily with any other boys, if he ever had to it would kill him or he would have to kill that boy to make sure that Lily was his alone, she would not be allowed to divide her affections between two or three boys, even if those affections were only friendly.

Lily and Severus were still hugging when Professor McGonagall got back with the four boys who were now dry and she cleared her throat at Lily and Severus' embrace. They broke apart, both blushing furiously. Black wolf whistled and Lily glared at him angrily.

'Move along now,' said a sharp voice. 'The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line,' Professor McGonagall told the first years, 'and follow me.'

And Severus walked forwards behind Lily; into what he increasingly thought was his doom. He followed Lily's beautiful red hair into the great hall and because he was staring so hard at Lily's hair, he barely even noticed all of the other students who were sitting around the hall staring at him. It was only when they had stopped walking and Professor McGonagall was placing an old ragged hat on a stool did Severus truly notice his surroundings, and all of the students seemed to be staring at the hate, so Severus did the same. Quite suddenly the hat's rip near the brim opened wide and it broke into song…


	5. Flying through the sorting

_Guys, I don't mind the fact that people are putting my stories on story alert or making me their favourite author, in fact I love it! But do you know what I would love even more? For you guys to review my stories so I know what makes you all like them so much, please? Or at least give me some constructive criticism. Ok, moan over and now to a chapter from everyone's favourite messy black haired boy, not Sirius, James!_

Chapter 5

James couldn't believe that he had already got into trouble, he hadn't even been at Hogwarts twenty minutes yet, and he, Sirius, Remus and Peter had already gotten their first detention for breaking at Hogwarts boat. It was to be served that weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, they would only be writing lines, but still, Professor McGonagall had told them that this was the fastest any student in the history of Hogwarts had ever gotten detention. At this James and Sirius shared a secret high five, which went unnoticed by all, except Professor McGonagall. For that one gesture we got another weekends detention, she told James and Sirius then that they were incredibly discourteous towards her.

Well actually that first part of James' statement was a lie, he could believe that he had already gotten into trouble this early on. In fact James and his father had a little bet on behind his mother's back as to how long it would take James before he got into trouble. James knew that his father had won this bet and he couldn't wait to owl him when he got up to Gryffindor Tower. James was very confident that he would be becoming a Gryffindor shortly. Most people called what James had arrogance; James simply knew it to be self-belief. The belief that he could do anything he set his mind to and that he was capable of anything and everything.

James also couldn't believe that he and Sirius already had a plan for how to make their first feast at Hogwarts spectacular, it had been both of their ideas, but Sirius would be the one doing most of the work. James was actually quite nervous as it involved him being a test subject for Sirius' charm casting abilities.

Suddenly James realised that whilst he had been trapped inside his thoughts, he had completely missed the sorting hat's song. This fact frustrated him quite a lot, now he would never be able to tell his children of the song that the hat had sung on his first year of Hogwarts. Then Professor McGonagall got out a long scroll of parchment and began to read the names of the students off it.

'Abott, Patrick!' A small white blonde boy went up to be sorted and mere seconds after the hat had been placed on his head it shouted,

'Huffelpuff!'

'Black, Sirius!' James' new dark haired friend went up to be sorted, a frown crossed James' face, so his new friend was related to the Black family? From the stories James had heard, they weren't a very nice bunch and all of them were Slytherins. The hat seemed to be taking its time deciding, but eventually it shouted out,

'Gryffindor!' Silence filled the hall, over at the Slytherin table, half the house seemed to be shocked into silence. After a tense ten seconds, the silence was fragmented bu Professor Dumbledore beginning to clap and so did the Gryffindor table, though James noted that it was rather uncertainly.

After a while, James tuned out the sortings until it came to the red haired girl on the train,

'Evans, Lily!' James looked around in surprise, the red haired girl came sat down, had the hat placed onto her head and waited for about thirty seconds.

'Gryffindor!' James breathed a sigh of relief, he was so glad that there might be a chance for her to get to know the real James, not the prat on the train who had insulted her best friend.

After another wait in which James was bored, his other friend, Remus had his turn to be sorted. Remus slowly walked up to the stool, whilst he was shaking and then he too had the hat placed upon his head. The hat and Remus seemed to be having some sort of mental argument, but after about three minutes the hat opened its brim and shouted,

'Gryffindor!' James applauded along with the rest of the hall and Remus made his way slowly over to the Gryffindor table, he was still shaking, but then as he sat down next to Sirius, Sirius patted him on the back reassuringly.

James tuned out several more sortings until he realised that it might be him in a minute, his other friend Peter was stumbling up to the platform with the sorting hat and sitting onto the stool, he looked, if it was even possible, more scared that Remus had done. After about five minutes the sorting hats brim opened wide and it shouted out to the hall,

'Gryffindor!' Then James heard his name,

'Potter, James!' James walked up to the stool and had the sorting hat thrust upon his head by Professor McGonagall. And it sounded as though a little voice was speaking in his ear.

'Ahhh, another Potter. You seem to be remarkably like your father and your grandfather. You Potter men never change throughout the generations. I know just what to do with you…'

'Gryffindor!' This was it, James thought as he stood, he caught Sirius' eye and nodded slightly, Sirius swished his wand and then…

James was gliding through the air, over to Gryffindor table. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, the crowd loved his flying act, until something made Sirius lose concentration, when James was about a foot from the table. James felt himself fall through the air and landed with a 'THUMP!' onto the Gryffindor table. It had gone perfectly, and for that James earned himself an even bigger round of applause, he beamed and stood up on the table and bowed, the grabbed Sirius and hoisted him up onto the table as well, he too bowed and both of them sent out kisses to the cheering crowd. After that the rest of the sortings passed in a blur, Professor Dumbledore told them that they could begin eating, and so they did!

The feast at Hogwarts was magnificent; James had never seen one quite like it, even the ones made by his family house elves at Christmas didn't quite reached the same levels of grandeur as the welcoming feast. The talk at the Gryffindor table was quite different to how it was at home, it was noisy and often punctuated with laughter, at James' home dinner was carried out in a formal manner, James was not to speak unless spoken to and he often wasn't invited to share dinner with his parents. Normally he sent for his favourite house elf, Karina. She knew what his favourite foods where, having worked for the Potter family for many years. She always knew to bring James treacle tart, pumpkin juice and as many sausages as she could carry at once.

The Potter's had a whole host of House Elves working for them, but the house elves were not treated cruelly, they all had names and were treated as members of the family. They still refused any form of payment despite Dorea Potter's constant pleas, but now they all wore nicer clothes and had stopped addressing James as 'Master'.

The talk along the Gryffindor table turned to people's families. Remus was up first.

'My father is a pure blood and my mother a muggle born, I'm an only child. They thought that I would be a girl, I think that they hoped for a girl, but they only got me.' Then a plump blonde haired boy spoke up, James didn't know his name yet.

'I'm a half blood too, my name's Peter Pettigrew, my mum is a witch and my dad a muggle. When he found out about my mum he freaked and ran off for a while, but he came back when she found out she was pregnant with me, I'm also an only child.' Lily Evans, the pretty red head looked up at him, and dii a double take, then she spoke in the most beautiful voice James had ever heard in his life.

'I think that I've seen you before, do you live in Cokeworth?' She tilted her head to the side slightly, and James saw for the first time her green eyes, unencumbered by her fiery hair. They were a forest green and almond shape, he loved those eyes from the firs moment he saw them.

Peter was nodding his round head shyly, but he wasn't speaking.

'Oh, I live there too! I'm Lily, muggle born. My father is a lawyer and my mother is a nurse.' She smiled at him, and Peter went red and then fell off of the bench he was sitting on. Sirius howled with laughter, as did James and Remus. Lily pursed her lips at them and then turned back to the other girls.

'Well I'm a pureblood, only child, my parents dote on me. They are quite a bit older and I guess that you could say that I've been spoilt.' James smiled at Sirius, 'What about you Sirius?' James didn't notice it immediately, but he saw that Sirius looked uncomfortable.

'Not much to say, there's me, my parents and younger brother Regulas. Oh look, pudding!' James looked at the table and to his delight he saw that Sirius was right, the main course had disappeared to be replaced with mounds of puddings. James couldn't see any treacle tart however; his disappointment was washed away when he saw where it was, over by Lily and her friends. He got up and went to go and get some.

'Ladies, I hope you don't mind if I just grab some of this delicious looking tart here.' James smiled appealingly at them. A blonde girl giggled, but then looked away quickly.

'Why yes, Potter. We do mind.' The girl Lily looked up at him and was scowling.

'Evans, you may want to wipe that surly look off of your face, if the wind changes it might stay that way forever and that would certainly ruin your good looks.' James said, Sirius had looked up from his pudding and was now laughing at the incredulous expression on Evans' face. James smiled sweetly and grabbed the treacle tart and headed back to his seat. He was nearly there when the treacle tart was levitated out of his hands.

James turned around and saw Lily Evans standing there with her wand out, lazily charming the treacle tart back to her end of the table. She laughed at the expression on James' face and called down the table, just as sweet as James' smile had been,

'Potter, close your mouth or a fly may fly in and get stuck in all your arrogance.' Then she sat down and turned back to the tart and carried on talking to her friends as though nothing had just happened. James sat down promptly and was met by Sirius' laughter. He simply ignored it and began to plot ways to get back at her. Because he was sure he would, or his name wasn't James Potter.


	6. Introductions

_Sorry this chapter is so late, I had a friend over and I didn't want to be anti-social._

Chapter 6

Lily Evans had always had a 'think the best of people, unless they prove you badly wrong', but she never thought that she would ha someone on their very first sight, well that day she had been proved wrong, by one James Potter. She had loathed him, simply because he seemed like an arrogant, stuck up, idiotic prat. Five minutes in his presence and she would already happily kill him, and they hadn't even been at Hogwarts for a day!

Lily was so glad that she had been sorted into Gryffindor; she had been panicking about which house she would be put into, because unlike some cocky idiots, she didn't have bucket loads of magical ancestors. Lily pulled herself out of her reverie, just in time to hear Professor Dumbledore's speech.

'May I say welcome to you all. This for many of us is our first year here; it is also my first year as Headmaster. I know that many of our older students shall miss my predecessor, but times must change to bring in the new. Also I welcome to you our new Astronomy teacher, Professor Dowding.' A tall, young, man with curly chocolate brown hair and a breath taking crooked smile stood up and waved to the students. Most of the girls, Lily noticed went crazy for him, whilst the male population of the school seemed to be more reserved.

'And finally, please welcome, Professor Martell. The new Defence against the Dark Arts professor.' A short woman stood up, she had many scars visible on the little skin she showed and her long black hair rippled dangerously as she stood. She did not smile, nor did she wave, Professor Martell simply radiated power and menace. Lily knew in an instant, just as she had known with Professor McGonagall; that this was a woman that she should not cross.

Professor Dumbledore was speaking again, but Lily couldn't take her eyes off of Professor Dowding. He was relaxed and he had a small, sweet smile on his face, and it might have been Lily's imagination, but he seemed to look over at her more than once.

'New students and some of our older ones, should not that the Forbidden Forest, is just that, forbidden.' His piercing light blue eyes travelled over the student population, but his gaze landed on the Gryffindor table, particularly on a set of twins, both of the twins had bright orange hair and innocent grins to match each other perfectly. They were identical down to the last freckle. For a brief second Lily imagined what it must be like to have someone look that similar to you, and to share everything with that one person, it reminded her of her and Petunia, everything they used to have. And then Lily felt the waves of pain wash over her again and again, just as strong as they had been on the train and she fought hard to suppress her tears. She wouldn't cry and look weak, especially not in front of Potter and Black who would just laugh at her and ridicule her like they had Sev.

'And finally, off to beds, you must all be exhausted and there is much studying to be done tomorrow. Goodnight.' Lily only realised that they were being dismissed when she heard two voices shout out over the hubbub,

'Gryffindor first years this way!' Lily got up and walked over to two older students, a girl and a boy. The girl had long wavy dark blonde hair and the boy had spiky black hair, they smiled at each other once and then turned to the group of ten first years.

'Hi, I'm Alison and this is Kevin. We are your fifth year prefects and it's our job to take you to our tower and make sure you don't get into too much trouble. If you ever need anything, or anyone to talk to, we're here for you!' Alison finished, she was perky and full of energy and very talkative, whereas Kevin was just looking at all of the first years. Not in a creepy manner though, he looked at them with a speculative air, as though he was wondering how they would turn out, what their year would be dubbed as. From what he could already tell, they would be major trouble makers, at least three of them would be.

'Ok, so follow us up to your new home!' And with that Alison exited the hall, and the Gryffindor first years followed behind her, struggling to keep up with her longer strides.

Lily then saw, for the first time in her life, that the pictures on the walls were moving. They were smiling and waving and talking to each other, she was so bemused by this, that she didn't follow where the prefects were taking her. Her mind was also still partially on Professor Dowding's cute smile, not that was getting a crush on her Professor, she merely like the way he looked, a lot.

Lily was completely stunned when they arrived, on what she thought might be the seventh floor, and they stopped outside the portrait of a rather plump lady wearing a pink dress. She looked at the prefects and asked,

'Password?'

Kevin opened his mouth and spoke in a deep voice, it was the first time any of them had heard him speak.

'Cor leonis.' From Lily's studying before she came to Hogwarts of Latin, she knew this to mean heart of a lion. Lily supposed this was because they were in Gryffindor house; the symbol for Gryffindor was a lion.

The pink dressed woman nodded her head and the portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall, as the first years tried to scramble through the hole, Lily's foot caught on a rock and she fell head first into the common room. Lily jumped up, but she was surprised to find that her ankle had twisted and it was quite painful to stand up on it. None the less she did, and Lily was immensely glad when it seemed that the only people who had noticed were a cute blonde girl and a boy with sandy coloured hair, and neither of them said anything.

After Lily had stood and limped forwards, she looked around the Gryffindor common room properly. It was spacious, yet cosy. There was a crackling fire place on the right side of the room, which was surrounded by comfortable looking sofas and armchairs. On the right wall there was a notice board, which seemed to be bare. The floor was white floorboards, but so many red and gold rugs covered it, that you could see a few patches of it here and there. There were two massive windows to let in light on either side of a stone staircase, it went up a little way and two different staircases emerged either side of it, going off into different directions. Both of the windows had window seats, which were also red and gold. Lily personally thought that it was a bit too much red and gold for her taste.

'Ok, girls, your dorm is up the stairs and to your right. Boys, yours is to the left. Oh, introduce yourselves first to each other, you'll be sharing this tower together for the next seven years, so you may as well get to know each other.' Alison smiled at them, and then she and Kevin departed, up the stairs to their dorm.

'I'm James Potter, a pureblood and I live in Godric's Hollow.' Potter smiled arrogantly as he went first, closely followed by his friend.

'I'm Sirius Black, also a pureblood and I live in London.' Sirius grinned, 'I'm also devilishly handsome, so ladies you have the exclusive opportunity of being with this.' And the he gestured to his body. All of the girls snored and the blonde haired girl, who had seen Lily fall through the portrait hole, spoke next.

'I'm Marlene McKinnon, also a pureblood and I too live is Godric's Hollow, right next to that joker James. Both of my brothers already come to school here, they too are in Gryffindor. And Sirius, I highly doubt any of us would want to get on that, but thanks for the offer.

Then the sandy haired boy spoke,

'I'm Remus Lupin, a half blood and I live in Surrey.'

'I'm Peter Pettigrew, a half blood and I live in Cokeworth.' Then Lily spoke up,

'I live in Cokeworth too; I'm a muggleborn and my name's Lily Evans.'

'I'm Frank Longbottom, I live in York and I'm a pureblood.'

'I'm Mary McDonald, I'm a muggle born who lives in London, and my older sister comes here.'

'The names Alice Fortesque, yes my dad is the guy in Diagon Alley who sells ice cream. I'm a pure blood and I live above my dad's shop. My older brother Magnus is also a Gryffindor.' Then there was silence, nobody knew what to say.

'So goodnight then.' Marlene finally said and she led the way up to the girl's dormitories. Before Lily could quite get up the stairs she heard someone calling her name, so she turned slowly and saw Potter running over to her. The common room was empty now.

'Hey Evans, I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot earlier. It's not my fault that I'm so amazing that Snivellous is already jealous of me!' Lily was furious.

'Of course Sev isn't jealous of you, as if anyone would be jealous of you.'

'Hey, I'm just trying to apologize to you.' James said.

'Don't apologize to me, apologize to Sev.' Lily said and with that she stormed out of the common room and up the girl's staircase on the third landing which had a plaque on it saying, 'Gryffindor first year girls.'

The girls didn't talk at all that night, they were all too tired. But just before Lily fell asleep, she lay in her bed thinking about the day and Hogwarts, it had been perfect until James Potter had come along and ruined everything! Lily refused to let him ruin anything else; she would have the time of her life at Hogwarts, and James Potter as not going to change that. She smiled to herself then she fell asleep, and Lily Evans did dream about James Potter, but when she awoke in the morning, she didn't remember any of these dreams.


	7. Crushing memories

Chapter 7

Sirius awoke and looked around his bed in confusion; it was not in his usual room surrounded by his pictures and dirty, untidy room which his family house elf knew to leave alone. He was in fact staring at a set of scarlet curtains. It took a few seconds for Sirius to process where he was, and he was juts reaching his conclusion, before the curtains were ripped open and a black haired, bespectacled boy grinned down at him.

"Good morning lazy bones! Hurry up! Everyone else is dressed and ready to go down to breakfast!" Sirius looked up at the boy who was far too energetic for the earliness of the morning, and then he asked the question that was on his mind.

"What time is it?"

"Half seven." The boy replied with a smirk. Sirius sat up slowly and got up out of his bed.

Sirius looked around the room and the night before came crashing back to him. The five boys decided that they should get to know each other a bit, so they had stayed up to god knows what time talking and laughing and joking. The dorm looked like a bomb had hit it. Sweet wrappers were all over the floor, feathers were seen floating around the dorm and James' bed curtains seemed to have been ripped off and were now draped all over the walls and ceiling. Bits of ripped up pillow were also on the floor and a lots of sticky liquid that seemed like treacle and toast.

"Well that was fun." Peter said finally to break the silence.

"I can't believe that we already ruined our dorm." Remus said in a horror struck tone.

"It's alright mate," James said reassuringly, "we'll just find a spell to put it all right again."

Sirius climbed over a broken chair to get to his trunk and began pulling his robes on haphazardly, he was so tired that he forgot to take his pyjamas off, but he couldn't care less. For the first time in a very long time, he was happy.

"Come on Mate." James said once Sirius was done, Remus seemed to be hyperventilating in the middle of the room and the other boy, Frank was attempting to clear up some of the feathers by hand. But of course the feathers were stuck in the treacle and once Frank had finally extracted about three, he was covered in feathers and treacle.

Sirius laughed and then he began to help Frank which of course resulted in him getting covered in feathers and treacle. Soon James and Peter had joined in and a full on feather war was going on surrounding Remus who was just sitting in the middle of it all with his eyes closed hyperventilating still. This fight went on until the four boys lay on the floor panting for breath and Remus awoke from his comatose state.

"What happened here? The dorm looks worse than before!" Remus shrieked, and then he looked at his watch, "Guys, its eight, class starts in an hour and we still have to find our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast! Come on!" And Remus ran out of the room.

The four boys looked at each other and followed him out, they all got out of the portrait hole and then ran off in the wrong direction, it take them at least half an hour to get to the Great Hall, which was already emptying. They plonked themselves down on the Gryffindor bench and Sirius reached for three pieces of cold toast and some pumpkin juice. Just as they were beginning to really get into their breakfast, Professor McGonagall came hurrying over to where they sat.

"Oh, you five boys. I was wondering if you would ever turn up for breakfast. Why are you covered in feathers? Wash that ridiculous mess off at once! But first here are your timetables for your classes, it seems that you have me first for Transfiguration, I shall allow you to be five minutes late, any more and you shall all receive more detentions and have points deducted from your house. Good day to you all."

She handed out the timetables to the five boys, reaching Sirius last and avoiding his eye contact, and then she walked out of the hall as fast as she had come in, her high heeled boots clicking on the marble flagstone.

Sirius looked down at his timetable and commented to James,

"Transfiguration first with McGonagall, then double Charms, lunch, then Potions and last Defence Against the Dark Arts." James choked on his juice.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts? That's the subject that I'm really looking forward to, my father hasn't told me much about what we'll be learning, but I bet it's really exciting."

For a minute or two Sirius considered what he might be learning in Defence Against the Dark Arts, maybe he would learn how to fight of his family who were definitely into the Dark Arts. But if it came to it, would he be able to kill one of his family members? Even Bellatrix whom he despised whom every fibre in his body, she was still his family, but she would probably kill him without second thought. Sirius only liked a few members of his family, well his immediate family; all of the pureblood families were related to each other in one way or another. The only members of his that he actually liked were his brother Regulas, his cousin Andromeda and his Uncle Alphard who had always been decent to him.

"Come on guys, if we don't leave now, we'll never get this washed off in time and get to Transfiguration." The voice of Remus brought Sirius out of his reverie about his family; he could worry about them later, for the time being he had other problems to think about, namely, how in Merlin's name were they going to wash off feathers and treacle?

About twenty minutes later, a water fight, lots of soap and several wrong turns the five Gryffindor boys found themselves outside the right classroom, but they were all standing at the door nervously, no-one wanted to be the first to go in.

"Well, we may as well get this over with." Sirius muttered finally and he pushed the door open and walked into the classroom. It was deadly silent and there was no teacher present, only a tabby cat sitting on the teacher's desk.

"Guys, come on in. It's fine, McGonagall isn't even here!" Sirius called over his shoulder and one by one the other boys walked into the room sheepishly, then they saw that Professor McGonagall was indeed not in there.

Sirius and James hurried to a pair of desks at the back, Remus and Peter grabbed a pair next to them, leaving Frank to sit next to a pretty black haired girl, who quickly leaned over and whispered something that no-one else could hear into his ear. Whatever she had said to Frank must have been amusing, thought Sirius, because he started grinning.

"So," Sirius finally said after about three more minutes of dead silence had passed, "what are we doing in here today? And that is one cute cat." Sirius stood up and he walked up to the front of the classroom and began to put and stroke the cats head. Most of the class began to laugh at Sirius who turned to them looking confused. Then he turned back around and let out the most girly scream that anyone had ever heard, because sitting on the desk was not a cute tabby cat, it was Professor McGonagall giving him the sternest look anyone had ever seen.

"Mr. Black, as much as I appreciate being called a 'cute cat' I must ask that you return to your seat and transfigure a piece of hay into a needle." Sirius blushed and as he turned to run back to his seat, he tripped, causing him to sprawl I front of the entire class. At this all of the students burst into laughter and even Professor McGonagall looked like she wanted to laugh.

The rest of the lesson passed uneventfully, and Sirius spent most of it muttering to James about how much he hated cats and Lily Evans kept turning around to smirk at them, until James blew her a kiss, then her smirk turned into a scowl.

Once the bell rang, Sirius bolted out of the classroom so fast that it looked like someone had set him on fire. James finally caught up with him just outside their charms classroom; he was out of breath and James was rather short of it as well.

"I. Hate. Transfiguration." Sirius managed to wheeze out before the door to the charms classroom opened and a woman was standing in the door way. She was petite and had chocolate brown hair that fell to the floor and she smiled at the two boys who were the only ones there.

"Good morning boys, are you the only members of your class here? Well why don't you come inside and we can get acquainted before the others arrive and I put you into your seating plan."

"Seating plan?" James whispered to Sirius as they entered the room, "What's one of those?"

"I think, dear James, a seating plan is where the Professors chose were we sit." Sirius replied in a condescending tone that made James smack his arm.

"Quite right my dear, so what are your names?" The woman asked.

"Sirius Black and James Potter at your service ma'am." Sirius said and as he did so, he bowed so low to the floor that his nose touched it and James mimed taking off a hat.

"How lovely to meet you James and Sirius. I prefer to have an informal atmosphere in my classrooms, I believe it helps the students feel more comfortable, and from that better results in their charming work. I shall introduce myself when more of you have arrived."

They didn't have to wait long before the rest of the class filed in, some even went to take seats, but the woman stopped them.

"Good day class, my name is Professor Selene Oliver. Please call me Selene though, I believe in calling all students by their first names to create an informal atmosphere in this room. Now I shall give you assigned seats which you shall sit in until I leave or you leave, no swapping and no questions. Now Sirius and Miss Caroline over there at the front please."

Sirius looked up to see a pretty girl walk over to their assigned desk and he swaggered over to her. He basically tuned the rest of the lesson out, until he heard his friend's names.

"James and a Miss Lily over there in the corner at the back please." As James passed Sirius to get to the back James gave Sirius thumbs up. Lily did not look quite as happy, she looked utterly horrified if truth be told, but she didn't want to argue with any teacher, even Selene.

"Mr Remus and Miss Marlene in the middle row please." Sirius watched as Remus sat beside a cute blonde girl and she smiled at him.

"Mr Peter and Miss Jones by the far left wall please and finally Mr Frank and Miss Alice at the back in the middle."

Sirius looked around and everyone was seated, they had this class with the Ravenclaws, the girl sitting next to him, whose name he had already forgotten, was a Ravenclaw.

"Hello, my name is Sirius, and you must be…?" The girl turned on Sirius the most chocolate brown eyes he'd ever seen, they went perfectly with her caramel coloured hair.

"I'm Caroline, but please, don't strain yourself to remember that and if you possibly remember to, call me Carly." And with that she turned around and didn't say anything more to Sirius for the entire double period.

The rest of the day passed quickly for Sirius, lunch was delicious, potions was boring, the only thing he was looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts.

As the class of Gryffindors and Slytherins entered the room, there was a hushed silence amongst them all, the room was pitch black and the moment the door closed none of them could see anything. Sirius began to freak out, he knew it was irrational, but when he was at home and he had done something bad, his father would take him down to the basement and hit him until he decided that Sirius had learnt his lesson. Sirius was scared that any minute he would feel a hand hit him or break some part of his body; he was hyperventilating quite badly and groped in the darkness for a wall or something to hold onto, to escape from the memories. The room had begun to spin, but as he couldn't see anything he just thought the floor was rocking or was it him that was rocking, Sirius didn't know up from down and slowly the blackness began to press upon him and he felt himself all, or was he already on the floor and the memories of the pain in the darkness swallowed him whole.

When Sirius awoke he saw that the light was on and he was looking into the face of James who looked incredibly concerned for Sirius' wellbeing. Then he realised that most of the class was crowded around him, but the predominant face was that of the Defence teacher, Professor Martell. She smiled at him an James offered Sirius a hand to help him up. Sirius pushed James' hand aside and got up by himself. No one was speaking and the silence was almost deafening.

Then a Slytherin sniggered, and Professor Martell turned so sharply that she looked like a blur and she hexed the student, the girl that had sniggered opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Professor Martell turned back to Sirius more slowly.

"Go to the Hospital Wing, Mr Potter can take you." James grabbed Sirius by the arm and took him out of the classroom. As soon as they were out of earshot, James asked the question Sirius knew everyone wanted to know.

"What was that?" Luckily Sirius knew what his answer would be, he had thought of it as Professor Martell was hexing the Slytherin girl.

"I ran into a wall, must have hit my head." Sirius lied easily he was used to lying to people about the marks that were on his arms and legs, most of the time people believed him, but there was something James' expression that clearly said he didn't believe him and that he would interrogate him later about.

They walked in silence to the Hospital Wing, when they got there it was empty and a young nurse called Madame Pomfery patched Sirius up, he only had a small cut on his forehead, from where he had 'hit his head on the wall'.

James and Sirius then walked to the Great Hall also in silence. Sirius was too busy contemplating what he could say to James to placate him for a while. But luckily for him, James didn't question him that night, no-one did, so after dinner Sirius made an escape to the dorm and when the other boys came up, pretended to be asleep, but really he didn't get to sleep until the early hours of the morning.


	8. Peachy

_Hey Guys, sorry for the two week wait for this chapter. I was at school for the weekend, but I broke up on Friday and the reason I wasn't able to post this new chapter sooner is that I was camping until today. But never fear, my summer holidays have started and other than going camping again, going to Gran Caneria for a week and going to Center Parcs next weekend, I'm not doing anything, so updates should be a lot more frequent!_

Chapter 8

For Remus, Hogwarts felt more like home every day, despite his condition which he was adamant that his newly found friends would never find out about.

As the month of September rolled past in a blur, he barely even found time to worry about his first transformation of the year. Classes, homework, meals and friends were pre-occupying his mind, so that on the eve of his transformation, he wouldn't have realised that it was the full moon that night, had James not said anything.

"Oh I love the full moon, it's so much fun to play Quidditch and fly around in the light of it." Remus choked on the chocolate he had been munching on, whilst reading his transfiguration book.

"I'm sorry, but what did you just say James?" James looked over at Remus.

"I said I love the full moon-"

But Remus never gave James a chance to finish what he was saying, he ran out of the dorm and down to Hospital Wing. Remus was sprinting so fast that the air tore out of his lungs in jagged breaths. He knew that he had been rash, how could he have forgotten that tonight was the night? He could have endangered his friends!

Remus shook himself out of his self-loathing thoughts and as he ran past Professor Dowding's office, he heard something that made him falter in his sprint. A girl's high pitched muffled scream, and then a muffled thud, and maniacal laughter.

Remus stopped, then a dreadful sense of foreboding overcame him, he wasn't supposed to have heard that, he was deadly sure of that. And he couldn't tell anyone, because, well Remus didn't have a reason for not telling anyone, he just couldn't.

The door of the office stood open slightly and with a morbid fascination Remus crept slowly closer to the door. He grabbed the door handle and edged the door open slowly, so that it wouldn't make a noise. And what he saw in the office was enough to paralyse him for a further five minutes whilst he watched in horror and disgust. Then a grunting from the office made him jerk back to his senses, and Remus ran from the scene.

Although Remus was thoroughly out of breath he didn't stop running until he reached the hospital, it had just gone eight, he was only half an hour late. He walked through the door shaking and was greeted by a young assistant called Madame Radley.

"Mr Lupin, wherever have you been? You are late and that was not part of your agreement at all! I wouldn't want to have to tell the Headmaster that he wrong to let you into this school! Now come along, we have a tree to get to before the moon." She swept a cloak over Remus' shaking shoulders and hurried him out of the room.

They walked in silence across the grounds, but that was fine with both of them. Remus barely noticed the walk out to the Willow that night, he was too busy reliving what he had seen in Professor Dowding's office and it still horrified him as much as when he had seen it happening. Remus didn't realise where they were until Madame Radley was talking to him again.

"Now Mr Lupin, I'm going to leave you. I'll be back at dawn. Have, not so much a good night, more a bearable night." Madame Radley froze the thrashing tree and then motioned for Remus to go through the hole in the ground.

As soon as Remus went through the hole, he felt the tree's thrashing start back up again, and e knew that he was trapped for the night. Under the tree wasn't too bad, it was warm, yet damp and it wasn't too dark. Remus didn't feel the need to light his wand. He remembered the Headmasters instructions to him and journeyed along the passage until he came to the shack that was to be his sanctuary for the next seven years.

Upon entering the shack, Remus looked around and saw a comfortable room, with boarded up windows and doors, probably magically re-enforced Remus thought to himself whilst he was taking his robes off. Although he detested being naked, it was preferable to waking up with no clothes to put on as when he transformed it ripped any clothes he may have been wearing at the time.

A low groan shuddered through his body, and then another one. Remus tried to brace himself for the pain that came with the transformations, but as ever it was more painful than he had imagined it to be. He tried desperately to hold onto to whom he was, but as ever he felt himself slipping away, drowning in the pool of his own pain, and the last thing he saw in his mind's eye before the wolf inside him completely took over, was the body he had seen on Professor Dowding's desk.

And then all conscious thought was gone.

"Wow, he doesn't look good does he?"

"Of course he doesn't look good Pete, he fell off a train!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"How could you forget? One of our friends is injured!"

"Guys, stop. I think Remus can hear you."

Remus' thoughts had begun to speed up from the ones of dreams to the ones of a semi-conscious person and he could recognise the three voices as the ones of Peter, Sirius and James. But he didn't want to leave the peaceful, pain-free dream like state he was in, so he ignored the voices and wished they would just go away, because he knew that if he focused hard enough he would feel pain.

"Ah Mr Lupin, stirring I see, let me just get your pain medication."

And then the pain hit Remus, full force as though he was being trampled by a herd of elephants and he moaned, causing James to tap his shoulder lightly.

"Remus mate, are you ok?" Remus barred his teeth and opened his eyes. A first his vision was blurry, and then his friends swan into focus, all looking at him in great concern, and, was it slight guilt?

"Yeah, I'm just…peachy guys." Remus said hoarsely, his voice sounded scratched even to his own ears.

"Peachy?" Peter asked in confusion.

"Yeah Pete, it means fine basically." Sirius explained quietly, but James couldn't take his eyes off Remus' face, he seemed to be looking at all of the scars on his face. But luckily, for Remus, James didn't question them, and after a few tense moments he looked away.

Then the Hospital Wing doors swung open and Frank Longbottom ran in, he looked worried, and then made a bee-line straight for the four boys.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner, I only just heard. How are you Remus?" An awkward silence followed his question, and the Peter piped up.

"Yeah, he's just peachy."

Frank looked between them all and then Sirius began to laugh and he was joined by the other four boys before too long. None of them could phrase why it was so funny, but Remus thought to himself later, the tension in the room had gotten to a breaking point and it came out in their laughter, which greatly diffused the tension and Remus was grateful for it, because it distracted him from his pain.


	9. Flying lessons

_I'm probably going to upload a new chapter every other day, some of these chapters are pre-written, and others are hot off the press. Ok, I'm a little distracted right now by A Very Potter Sequel, I love Lucius Malfoy, what a great singer and I drool over Darren Criss, guitar players are hot._

Chapter 9

Though he had only been at Hogwarts for not even two months, James was starting to notice things, small things, about his Gryffindor peers. Although he didn't look it, he was quite observant and little things never escaped his notice.  
Little things such as Sirius had cuts and scratches all over his arms; he was petrified of the dark and often deflected questions about his parents.  
Remus had bigger scars all over his body, was often secretive and ate a lot of chocolate and seemed to care too much about astronomy and star charts.  
And finally, although she avoided him at all costs, he noticed little things about Lily Evans, she too deflected questions about her family and home life and whenever he had the opportunity to look into her eyes, they always seemed hurt and broken, but only for a moment, then she would notice him looking and they harden in front of his eyes, she had a mask on.  
James didn't want to ask any of them about their secrets, especially not Lily Evans, he decided to wait, they would tell him in their own time.

For James pretty much of all the lessons were easy, he already knew a lot of what was being taught from his parents, therefore he decided that he shouldn't listen and perhaps he could spend his time doing other things in lessons, such as making paper aeroplanes and passing notes to Sirius who seemed just as bored as James was. Often the quiet lessons were punctuated by the boys laughter at something one of them had said, at this point Lily Evans would turn around and glare at James or Sirius or both of them. Sirius was getting quiet good at doing impressions of her, he did them at dinner, in the dorm, in lessons, wherever.

During one such lesson, James and Sirius were passing aeroplanes to each other, drawing enchanted pictures of Quidditch and what they would like to do to Snape if they had the chance, James began laughing and Lily Evans turned around and glared at him. Once the lesson was over James and Sirius ran out of the classroom laughing at her expression.

"God, I swear she must practice them in the mirror each morning before seeing us, just in case she needs to glare at us during the day." Sirius and James cracked up, Remus smiled weakly and Peter giggled.

"I mean, this one, really?" And Sirius did an impression of her, then Lily stormed by glowering darkly at the boys, her friends followed and smiled at the boys, most of the even slowed their pace to talk to them.

"Hey guys." Marlene said, smiling particularly at Sirius.

"Hey girls." Sirius replied.

"What's up with Evans today?" James asked in a would be casual voice, but he ran his fingers through his hair nervously, which ruined the effect.

"You." Alice replied quickly, not even looking at him, but at her timetable, "Damn, flying lessons later today. Did you know that they are compulsory for all first years?"

"What did I ever do to her?" James asked quietly.

"I think she said something about being arrogant toe-rag and existing. I don't remember most of it, it's only our first week and she's already ranted about you three times. Bit repetitive really." Alice said, still not looking at James, now she was searching in her bag for something.

"You don't need her anyway mate, it's not like she's important to the grand scheme of things in your life." Sirius said, clapping a hand on James' shoulder.

"Yeah, I know." James sighed, wishing that he could start again with the girl who fascinated him.

After lunch all eight of them, Lily was being dragged along by Marlene, although she refused to talk or look at James or Sirius, walked down to the grounds for their first flying lesson.

"I could be doing that homework for Professor Dowding right now about Saturn's rings." Lily complained as they made their way down towards the field. Then she stumbled, her foot dislodged a rock and she slipped on them, teetering wildly on the edge of a step just above James, he turned at the right moment and caught her from falling, briefly, her momentum came down upon both of them and they toppled off the edge of the steps and fell down the hill together, Lily still in James' arms. When they reached the bottom, Lily untangled herself from James' arms, and turned to face him, hands on her hips.

"Potter! How dare you? This is all your fault!" James stood up, so that he was only slightly taller than her, and looked at her with great confusion.

"How is it 'all my fault'?" James asked confused, "I thought that I was saving you, until your weight and the force of which you fell, carried us down the hill."

Lily spluttered at him, and then stormed away; James looked after her with great annoyance, how come she was so biased against him? And why did she have this preconceived notion that everything that went wrong around her was his fault? Her precious Snape wasn't any better than him, yet she always let him off of the hook.

"Hey mate, that was one good show!" James turned and saw that Sirius had caught up with him, he was still standing in the exact position that Lily had left him in.

"Well not for Evans, apparently it was 'all my fault'." James sighed, and then a smile re-appeared on his face.

"What?" Sirius asked, completely nonplussed by his sudden change in emotion.

"Flying lessons." James said, and then he ran off towards the place where the Slytherins and Lily were already assembled for their first flying lesson, which they were to have together.

Once all of the Gryffindors had arrived, and were standing beside brooms that currently resided on the floor, a hawk like woman walked over to them, James knew from his parent's extensive tales of Hogwarts that this woman was Madame Hooch, the Quidditch referee and flying teacher.

"Right class, my name is Professor Hooch. This is your first flying lesson, put one hand over your broom and say 'up' in a firm voice." She said all this with one breath, and James sniggered; he put his hand over his broom and said,

"Up." Immediately his broom flew to his hand, he looked around; he was only one whose broom had gone up to him on first try. Sirius looked like he was concentrating so hard that he might lay a quaffle, but on his third try the broom came up to him. Remus and Peter's brooms were still on the floor, but Frank's broom was in his hand and he was smiling and encouraging Alice. To Alice's right was the cute blonde girl Marlene, she was not concentrating on her broom, merely checking her nails and to Alice's left was Lily, and she was struggling to get her broom to her hand.

James spared a glance at the Slytherins and saw that only about five of them had their broom in their hand. To his great pleasure Snape did not, but he was concentrating so hard to get it to his hand, his expression was funnier than Sirius' had just been, James nudged Sirius and pointed at Snape, Sirius started laughing at him too, but then Lily Evans saw what they were doing and she was not pleased.

"Potter, Black! Stop laughing at Sev, he doesn't deserve that, what has he ever done to you?" Lily shrieked at them and Madame Hooch turned on the boys.

"Laughing at a fellow student? I will not tolerate this, go and see Professor McGonagall, both of you, now!" At her words, both James and Sirius stopped laughing and began to argue with her, but ten minutes later they found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office, awaiting her call of 'enter', Sirius having just knocked.

"Enter." The decidedly Scottish voice called, and the boys pushed the door open and walked in slowly, dreading their doom.

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, why are you not in lessons?" Professor McGonagall asked, only briefly looking up from her parchment that she was reading.

"Professor, we've been sent to see you by Madame Hooch." James said nervously.

"Sent to see me? Why?" Professor McGonagall asked suspiciously.

"Well, we just had our first flying lesson, and James and I already had our brooms in hand, and we were observing the Slytherins attempts to get their brooms up, and then we noticed Sniv-Snape's face, which was quite amusing, so we began to laugh at it. Lily Evans didn't find it funny, so she yelled at us, and then Madame Hooch told us to come see you." Sirius said whilst looking at his shoes.

Professor McGonagall put down her sheet of parchment very slowly, then she surveyed the two boys, both of them flinched under her severe gaze.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to get more trouble from you two, than from any other two boys that have ever entered this school? Don't answer that. I must impress that we are here to build up each other, not tear each other down. However as this is not a serious offence, I shall not give detentions, but I shall take ten points from Gryffindor, each. Now leave, I do believe that it is dinner time."

And with that both boys ran out of the room, laughing and talking about their escape from detention, until they got to the bottom of the marble staircase, and they saw Snape, standing on his own, loitering outside the Great Hall, no doubt waiting for James and Sirius. When he spotted them, he marched purposefully up to them and drew his wand, so James and Sirius drew theirs as well, they spells were just about to begin flying, when they heard a female voice.

"Potter, Black, what do you think you are doing? Leave poor Sev alone!" Lily Evans marched down the stairs, whilst she was carrying at least five heavy books.

"Here Evans, let me help you with those." James offered, running up to her.

"I think not, Potter. I'm a big girl." Lily said sniffing, "Come on Sev." And as James watched Lily walk by him, he distinctly heard Snape ask Lily if he could carry her books for her, and she accepted, whilst smiling at Snape.

"What's her problem?" Sirius came up to James and asked quietly as they were still within the couple's hearing distance.

"Me." James sighed, and then he walked into tea, with Sirius following after him.

_Please, please, please review!_


	10. Slughorn's party

_Sorry that I didn't update over the weekend, but I was at Center Parcs and before that I was with my friend Ali, we went and saw the amazing spider man, has anyone seen it? It's so good, kinda made me want to see the other Spiderman films…_

Chapter 10

Lily began to settle down into Hogwarts and the teachers began to recognise her true talent in magical studies, but Lily knew that she was only talented because she spent a great proportion of her time in the school's library studying and looking up new facts that she could impress her Professors with in class.

One Professor who took a shine to Lily was the Potions master, Professor Slughorn, a couple of weeks before Halloween he invited several members of the first year Gryffindor and Slytherin class, merely saying to them each,

"It's only a small gathering for me and some students that I think have the particular qualities that I'm looking for. So if Mr Potter, Mr Black, Miss Evans, Miss McKinnon, Miss Fortesque, Mr Avery, Mr Nott, Mr Rosier, Mr Snape, Miss Greengrass and Miss Blake would like to look in for a few minutes or so, at eight tonight, you don't have to wear dress robes, just a little get together,"

Lily walked out of the dungeon only half paying attention to what Marlene was saying about what to wear and how she was going to do her hair, her mind was too busying considering why Professor Slughorn would invite her, of course she was good at potions, but other people were better than her, Lily resolved simply to ask Professor Slughorn that night at the party.

Eight rolled around far too soon for Lily's liking that night, and it found her standing in the girl's dorm, waiting for Marlene to magically straighten her own hair. Lily was ready; she had been ready since seven that evening, since then she had watched Marlene and Alice rush around looking for their shoes and asking questions about their make-up and dresses. Lily was wearing a black skirt and a gold top with strappy black sandals, and minimal make-up, Lily had always found putting make-up on too much hassle, she preferred to go looking natural. Marlene was wearing a pale pink dress, that had a silver overskirt and made her look like a pudding, with her blonde hair done up with pretty pale pink ribbons that matched the dress and Alice was wearing a pale blue dress.

"Come on Marlene!" Alice called across the room, and Marlene jumped, and in the process burnt part of her neck with the straighteners.

"Merlin Alice, make me jump much?" Marlene called across the room.

"You have nobody to blame but yourself." Alice said back sweetly.

"I beg to differ." Marlene muttered under her breath, Alice opened her mouth to retort, but Lily jumped in before their bickering could blow up.

"Guys, come on. We'll be late and I want to make a good impression on Professor Slughorn, and Sev will be there."

Marlene and Alice exchanged looks and rolled their eyes, they often did so whenever Lily mentioned Severus.

"See you later Mary." The girls called over their shoulder to their friend who was sitting quietly on her bed, she hadn't been invited, but was going to spend the night studying with Remus.

"See you guys, have fun!" She called back and the three girls walked out of the dorm, and the door swung shut behind them, leaving Mary alone in the dorm.

As the girls walked down the stairs, Alice addressed Lily and asked her a question that had been plaguing her mind for a while.

"Lily, why are you friends with Snape? You are so much better than him, I mean look at him and his friends." Lily whipped around and gave Alice a glare that was so piercing it seemed to cut through her body.

"He is a lovely boy, you're just judging him because he's in Slytherin, which is wrong, don't judge him before you get to know him."

"Which won't be happening anytime soon." Alice whispered to Marlene under her breath, Marlene giggled quietly so that Lily wouldn't hear her.

"Anyway, I don't understand why you are so against me and Sev being friends," Lily continued as the girls reached the common room, and then Lily sighed as she saw James, Sirius and Frank waiting for them.

"Ah, girls, we are here to accompany you to the party." And Sirius offered his arm to Marlene, who took it and walked out of the common room, Frank offered his arm to Alice and they walked off as well, leaving Lily and James standing there, alone and together.

"So Evans," James began.

"Don't even think about it Potter, I wouldn't walk with you if you were the last person alive." And Lily walked out of the common room and down the corridor, then she heard running steps behind her and she turned to see Potter running after her.

"I never said that I wanted to walk with you, I don't know why you would think that. Also I don't understand why you seem to dislike me so much." James said, he was panting. Lily whipped around, something about that boy just made her want to scream and rip his head off.

"You don't understand? Are you stupid? You have continuously insulted my best friend since the day we first arrived here, humiliated me and turned all of the Gryffindor's against Sev, also you are arrogant, big-headed and, and, and spoilt!" Lily shouted at him. Now James was letting his emotions get the better of him.

"At least I'm not so bloody naive that I think that my 'best friend', who happens to be a Slytherin, is amazing and lovely and doesn't start any fights with anyone ever, oh no, he's always the innocent victim." Lily stared at James, she couldn't believe that anyone could frustrate her more than Petunia, but then she had met Potter and been proved wrong.

"At least," Lily whispered, moving closer to James, "Sev, doesn't underestimate the true value of loyalty, unlike you." And she turned and began to walk away.

"Take that back!" James roared, and Lily spun around and saw him pointing his wand at her, quick as a flash she pulled her wand out, they looked at each other for a moment, and then shouted their spells at the same time.

"_Anteoculatia!"_ Lily yelled.

"_Cantis!"_ James shouted.

Lily immediately felt the need to burst into song, and when she looked up at James, he was growing antlers on his head. Lily opened her mouth to tell him that he looked ridiculous, but then she started singing.

"_Oh Potter, how stupid you look. What have you done to my voice? What is this feeling?" _

The tune Lily was singing was an upbeat one, this caused James to start laughing, but it sounded like a sound a deer would make, he clutched his throat, and tried to speak, but all that came out were grunts and what sounded like a baby crying.

"_We should go to the hospital wing." _Lily said this time her voice sounded deep and husky. James, not trusting himself to speak, nodded his head.

They walked down to the Hospital Wing together, mostly in silence. James occasionally made some bleating noises, which Lily would laugh at and then she would start singing again. This cycle went on until they arrived at the Hospital Wing five minutes later.

"Ah, Mr Potter, and Miss?" Madame Pomferey didn't even look up at them as James and Lily.

"_My name is Miss Evans, Lily Evans."_ Lily's voice was warbling and like and opera singer.

"Oh my, done a bit of duelling you two?" Madame Pomferey had finally looked up. Both of them nodded, Lily looked ashamed, but James looked pleased with himself, as though getting into trouble was something he always wanted to do. It was only a lot later that Lily realised that she and Potter had missed the entire of Slughorn's party, but she hadn't even thought of it all night.


	11. Pacts

_I'm about to start writing a whole new series called Ginny Weasley's: A guide to dating the most famous guy in our world. So I was wondering if any of you lovely readers would be interested in reading it? Also some ideas of what could happen would be appreciated, thanks._

Chapter 11

"Sirius! Sirius! Wake up mate!" Sirius groaned, he didn't want to wake up, he'd been having a lovely dream about him and his younger brother decapitating their mother, plus his bed was lovely and warm.

"Go away." He moaned, then a slight second of relief, before he was drenched in icy cold water.

"Ahhh!" Sirius screamed, he jumped out of his bed like a bullet and then stood in the middle of their dorm, facing James, Peter, Remus and Frank, all of whom were on the floor, practically crying with mirth.

"That was not funny." Sirius choked indignantly.

"Oh, I think it was!" Remus said.

"And you want to know what made it even better?" Peter asked, holding his sides because he was laughing so hard.

"What?" Sirius growled.

"We took pictures of the whole thing!" Frank said.

"Nooooo!" Sirius screamed again, what were they thinking? No-one could see him in this early morning state.

"Now that we've got you up, I feel that we ought to inform you that the first Quidditch match of the season starts in approximately," James checked his watch, "fourteen and a half minutes and we are leaving in five."

"You're all gits." Sirius muttered darkly, he picked up some random clothes and ran into the bathroom, he could still hear them laughing at him through the closed door.

Sirius dressed so fast that he surprised all of them, together they made their way down to the Quidditch pitch, and Sirius was berating all of them for throwing water over his head.

"I could of died you know." He said just as they walked into the stands.

"How?" James asked.

"Three ways, firstly I could have caught pneumonia,"

"Madame Pomfery could of cured that easily." Remus said.

"Or I could of caught Hypothermia,"

"Again, cured easily by Madame Pomfery." Sirius scowled at Remus, and then he continued.

"And finally, and most life-threatening, I could have had a heart attack from the sudden wake-up call and the shock and the rapid change of my body temperature, and then my heart could of failed." Sirius said smugly.

"Yeah well, that doesn't matter. Now shut up, the game is about to start." James said bluntly, and then he turned his attention to the Ravenclaw-Slytherin game that was about to start.

"Doesn't matter," Sirius scoffed, "Of course it matters!"

"No it doesn't," James said firmly, "It didn't happen, now shut up."

"But it could have happened."

"But it didn't!"

"Oh would both of you just shut up, or next game I'll bring duct tape and put it over both of your mouths to stop this bickering." Remus said with an air of finality.

Sirius and James looked at each other and then at Remus, then at the same time they asked him,

"Remus, what's duct tape?"

"A very strong muggle item used to stick two things together, I'll get you some for Christmas." He said, not taking his eyes off of the game.

The game was over quickly, Ravenclaw were completely annihilated by Slytherin, and when the Slytherin seeker caught the snitch half an hour in, making the final score 240-30, it was the cherry on top of the cake.

"Brilliant," said James afterwards bitterly, "Just brilliant."

They were trudging back up to the castle along with the other Gryffindor and Huffelpuff supporters. The Slytherins having gone ahead of everyone else and the Ravenclaws behind everyone else.

"I can't wait until I'm old enough to join the Quidditch team, I'll make sure that Slytherin never win another match." Sirius said.

"I'll second that motion." James said.

"I'll third it." Frank said.

"I'll fourth it." Peter squeaked. Then the four of them looked over at Remus who was watching them with slight interest.

"What?" Remus said as he saw them staring at him.

"You're supposed to say 'I'll fifth that', or something." Sirius told him.

"I don't want to play Quidditch." Remus said quietly.

"What?" Frank asked.

"I don't want to play Quidditch." Remus said more firmly this time.

"Don't want to play Quidditch?" Sirius roared.

"Now boys," James said, "I'm sure Remus has at least one perfectly good reason for why he doesn't want to play Quidditch."

"Do you?" Sirius asked quickly, turning his head from James to Remus so fast that his neck cricked.

"As a matter of facts, I do." Remus said firmly.

"Well let's hear them then, and we'll judge if they are valid reasons." Sirius said.

"Very well, one, I'm afraid of heights. Two, I'm rubbish at flying. Three, I'd just make a fool of myself if I attempt Quidditch. Four, it provokes too much inter-house rivalry, and I want to be at least on speaking terms with practically everyone in our year. Good enough for you Sirius?" Remus finished with a dry smile.

"No." Sirius said bluntly. Remus sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not joining, nor am I trying out, but I might see if there is a commentator's spot free." Remus said thoughtfully. Sirius looked aghast at the very thought.

"No, Remus. You can't! Tell him James, Frank, Peter. He can't be a commentator."

"I'm sorry mate," James said clapping a hand on Sirius shoulder, "But it's his life, he can choose to do whatever he wants, and there isn't a lot that we can do to stop him."

"What exactly is wrong with commentators anyway Sirius?" Remus asked.

"They, there are…" Sirius gulped and lowered his voice, "They are all fair and un-biased towards all of the houses!"

"And that's a bad thing?" Frank asked.

"Yes. It is." Sirius said. James chuckled and ran his hands through his hair.

"Why do you do that James?" Remus asked him curiously.

"Oh I don't know. Nervous habit I've picked up?" James said.

The boys made their way back up to the castle, and then they stopped in the Entrance Hall.

"Why've we stopped?" Sirius asked.

"I'm trying to decide what to do." Remus said simply, they stood there in silence for a few more seconds before Remus turned and walked away.

"Where are you going?" James shouted after him.

"The library." Remus shouted back. Then he rounded the corner and he was gone.

"Mental." Sirius muttered to himself.

"Actually I have to go to." Frank said.

"Where are you going?" James asked him.

"The library?" Sirius asked.

"No, I…I just have to go." Frank said turning pink and he turned and swiftly walked from the scene.

"If I had more energy I'd follow him." Sirius said lazily.

"Guys, come on. We are missing dinner and I'm starving." Peter said.

"If only we knew where the kitchens are, then we could eat whenever we wanted to." James sighed.

"We should search for it sometime." Sirius said matter of factly.

"I think we'd need Remus to help us." Peter said.

"Ah that boy will be the death of us all. He might make us…study." Sirius said, and at the end his voice dropped dramatically.

"We must swear never to study." James whispered.

"Very well, a pact because unbreakable vows scare me." Peter said.

"I Sirius Orion Black," Sirius started.

"Your middle name is Orion?" James sniggered.

"Family name," Sirius dismissed James' comment quickly, "anyway I swear that for the rest of this year I shall not study, nor shall I enter the library."

"I, James Charles Potter swear that for the rest of this year I shall not study, nor shall I enter the library."

"I, Peter Lance Pettigrew swear that for the rest of this year I shall not study."

"Hey Pete, what about entering the library?" Sirius asked quickly.

"Well I figured that someone needs to bring you two books just in case you have homework, and Remus won't be too happy about this pact, so I should do that job."

"Good thinking Pete." James said approvingly, and he patted Peter on the back and the three of them headed off into the Great Hall discussing the match, with great gusto and hand gestures.

_Ok guys, I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in ages, my holiday has been completely manic! I don't know when I'll next be able to update…it could be anywhere from tomorrow to the third weekend of September, so be alert! Oh and please, please pretty please review 3_


	12. Friday the 13th

_Hello guys, it's me again, (Well who else would it be?) this is going to be my last chapter for two weeks, because next weekend I'm in London with my mum and brother! I'm going to see the Paralympic fencing! Should be…interesting. So I'm using the time that I should be packing my suitcase for school or doing my History and Science to write a new chapter. Its only GCSE, it doesn't matter…really…On with the story!_

Chapter 12

Friday the 13th November started just like any normal day for James. He woke up before Sirius and got dressed before trying to wake Sirius up. Then he waited for Sirius to get ready and they made their way down to the Great Hall together. Remus and Frank had gone ahead because the wanted to discuss the Warlock's convention of 1709. Peter had decided to wait behind for James and Sirius.  
Breakfast passed without any mentionable incident, but though James later thought that his eyes were deceiving him, he was sure that Professor Dumbledore was staring more intently than usual at him.

After breakfast all of the first year Gryffindors then made their way down to potions which they had with the Slytherins.

As they made their way down to the dungeons, Sirius turned to James and said,

"You know what we haven't done in a while, and by a while I man a week, annoyed Snape."

"Your quite right Sirius mate." James said thoughtfully, and then Sirius yelled down the corridor to where Snape and Lily where walking and talking animatedly.

"Hey Snivellous, you know that your hair looks like a girls hair!"

Both Lily and Snape spun around so fast that James thought they looked blurred, and then they marched back up the corridor.

"Say that again to my face, Black." Snape hissed into Black's face, James watched intently, but Sirius and Snape seemed to be locked in an intense staring contest, James then looked at Lily.

"Good morning Evans." James said politely.

"Shut it Potter." She replied.

"It doesn't hurt to be nice." James said.

"Fine, good morning Potter." She said in a sickly artificial tone.

"That's better. Now is Snape going to be a man and lose? Or will I have to distract him?" James mused.

"Sev is more of a man that you'll ever be." Lily said icily.

"Ha! Yeah right. I'll prove it. Whether it takes a day, two months or until we leave Hogwarts!"

"Mr Potter." James spun around and he saw Professor McGonagall standing there, staring at him.

"Yes Professor?" James asked.

"Come with me, quickly please." She said, and then she turned and began to walk away.

"Oh James, in trouble again are we? Without me? You wound me!" Sirius said.

James smiled and winked at Lily, and then he ran off after Professor McGonagall.

"What is it Professor?" James asked.

"You'll see Potter." She said crisply. James was burning with more questions, was he in trouble? If so whatever for? Had they figured out that it was him who'd set those water balloons to go off as soon as any Slytherin walked in or out of the Great Hall?

Professor McGonagall stopped abruptly in front of an ugly gargoyle. James almost walked into her back, but luckily enough he stopped just in time.

"Fizzing whisbee." She said crisply, the gargoyle jumped aside and revealed a spiral staircase, Professor McGonagall started up it and James realised that she meant for him to follow her. He did so, becoming slightly dizzy as he climbed.  
Professor McGonagall stopped just outside an oak door with a knocker.

"Now Potter, this may come as a bit of a shock." And James was surprised to hear her voice had gone soft. She opened the door to reveal an oval office, which James knew immediately that it was the Headmasters office.

All around the walls were portraits of what James could only assume were previous Headmasters and Headmistresses, there were many small tables with silver objects on them that seemed to be emitting a faint whirring sound. On a perch just behind an oak desk sat a beautiful bird that James recognised to be a phoenix.

"James?" a cracked voice brought James back down to earth and he looked into the tearstained face of his mother.

"Mum? What are you doing here?" James asked completely perplexed.

"James, it's your father." James heart almost stopped beating.

"What's wrong with him?" James asked hoarsely, his throat and mouth had suddenly gotten very dry.

"It might be better for you to discuss this at St Mungos." Professor Dumbledore said.

"Come on James, we're flooing there." James' mum said.

Professor Dumbledore dropped some floo powder into the grate of the fireplace. The fire turned green, James' mum stepped in first and then she said,

"St Mungos." With a bang she was gone. James stepped into the fire and he too shouted,

"St Mungos." James had the horrible sensation of spinning that he always got whenever he was travelling by floo powder.

Then it stopped and James fell out of the fireplace, his mother was standing up waiting for him.

She took hold of James' arm and directed him up four flights of stairs without speaking, and then they stopped outside a single room.

"Is he, is dad in there?" James asked in the silence.

"Yes James, we can't go in and see him, not yet anyway, the healers are still working on him."

"What happened to him?" James asked.

"Your father was going on a mission today, with three other aurors. They were going to confiscate several dark items, but they people that they were confiscating them from put up a fight. One of the aurors died, your father and Peter Webb are in here, although your father is considerably worse than Peter, the only one who to away relatively unharmed was Lucas Hookwood."

"Mum, who died?" James asked quietly, terrified to hear the answer.

"Jack, I believe you know his son Frank Longbottom." James didn't know what to say.

"Does Frank know?" James asked quietly.

"He was told just before you were; his family were notified this morning."

"Are they, where are they?" James asked.

"I believe they are in the morgue, saying their goodbyes to Jack."

"Mrs Potter?" A nurse had come out of Charles' room; she had been standing by patiently waiting for James to finish asking questions.

"Yes?"

"He's awake and asking for you and his son. You may go in, but be very gentle."

James ignored her and ran into the room his father was in. He was hooked up to lots of machines that were whirring and humming gently, and he had many bruises and cuts all over what little was visible of his face.

"Dad?" James asked hesitantly, the man lying listlessly in the bed didn't look or act like his father; he was quiet and not making any jokes.

"Hello James." His father's voice came from the man, it sounded faint and scratchy.

"Dad, how are you?" James asked.

"Never been better, now if only they'd get me off of all these machines I could come home." James chuckled slightly, then he remembered where he was and that his father could die at any minute.

"James?" His father sounded unsure.

"What Dad?" James asked.

"How badly…how many…how bad do I look?" Charles asked hesitantly. James felt a pricking in his eyes.

"Dad, I'm not going to lie to you-"James started.

"I think I would of raised you better than to lie." Charles joked.

"It…you don't look good Dad." James said slowly, the tears were building behind his eyes and behind his glasses.

"Didn't think it would. Ah well, new battle scars and all that. It comes with the job description of being an auror." Charles chuckled slightly.

"Dad, d'you reckon, you'll be out by Christmas?" James asked.

"James, now it's my turn not to lie to you, I highly doubt that they'll ever let me leave this hospital room again, well until they take my body to the morgue."

"Don't joke about things like that!" James shouted, and then he ran from the room.

He ran past his protesting mother who had been standing by the door waiting for her turn with Charles, past the nice nurse who was sitting outside his father's room and he kept running until he was on the fifth floor.

He slid down a wall, and hid behind a potted plant that was by the entrance to the gift room and James thought about his father.

'How could he say something like that?' James thought angrily. James mulled over the inner turmoil of his thoughts for about half an hour, and finally he came to the conclusion that he didn't hate his father, he hated the people who'd put his father in that state. He would hunt them down, and do…James didn't know what he'd do if he met the people who'd hurt his father, but it would be bad, especially for them.


	13. Christmas at Hogwarts

_I am so sorry for not updating for so long, but life has been crazy! I was in America during Hurricane Sandy and couldn't update, and my science coursework is being piled on top of me along with the history! But anyway on with the story, I hope that you like this chapter, it took me ages to write! _

Chapter 13

After the attack on James' father, Sirius did all that he could for James. But with the holidays fast approaching, and the thought of spending two weeks in his parent's house with family members that he detested, was not the most appealing prospect. Especially as they hadn't had the chance to properly punish him for being placed in Gryffindor. He was the black sheep of the family, and sooner or later they were going to disinherit him as they did with all other members of the family who turned out unsatisfactory.

All of the other students were discussing merrily what their plans were for the holidays, and it was with a dejected spirit that Sirius spoke about going home.

"I have to stay here for the holidays." James said when Sirius mentioned holiday plans.

"Oh, wh-?" Sirius almost asked why but then he thought better of it and then he began to contemplate the idea of just staying at Hogwarts for Christmas.

By the time Professor McGonagall came around with the list to sign up for staying at Hogwarts over the holidays, Sirius had made up his mind. He would stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and face his family over the summer.  
James seemed slightly happier at the prospect of not having to have the boy's dorms to himself.

The final day of the term occurred, and that night in the common room there was a party. The first years weren't allowed any of the drinks, they simply had to sit by and watch the older years have a good time. Sirius put this time to good use; he was studying the Prewitt twins, Gideon and Fabian.

The twins were Sirius and James' heroes, eve since they had jinxed six Slytherins between the two of them and left them hanging from the Potions classroom, all covered in a thick green slime. But they were not only talented at jinxes; they knew most of the secret passageways in and out of the school, how to get around any Professor, how to hold their liquor and how to charm the ladies.

Sirius already knew that he wanted to be just like the twins when he was older, he just needed James to agree to be his other half, but, Sirius mused, that shouldn't take too much persuasion.

"Sirius? Sirius!" The next morning dawned and Sirius awoke to James standing over him, his glasses falling off of his nose.

"What James?" Sirius asked groggily.

"Last night, after you went up to bed, I came back down here and Gideon and Fabian told me how to get into the kitchens! Let's go and check it out!"

Sirius was awake in a flash; he jumped up and laughed at James' look of surprise.

"What are we standing here for? Take me O master." James grinned widely and he led the way out of the common room, and then down seven flights of stairs. By the end of which Sirius and James were both thoroughly out of breath.

"We are both so unfit." James wheezed.

"I bet I'm fitter than you." Sirius said, eyeing up James and thinking of all of the times that he'd had to run away from his parents.

"Oh yeah?" James asked cockily, standing up straight.

"Wanna have a race to determine who is fitter?" Sirius challenged James.

"Ok, but when Remus gets back, we'll need an officiator to make sure no-one cheats." James smirked.

"Are you saying that I cheat?" Sirius demanded, they had stopped walking outside the Great Hall.

"Maybe I am," James grinned, "now come on, I want to find the kitchens. Gideon and Fabian said that they were just off of the Great Hall."

James and Sirius searched together for the next two hours, until the grounds got dark. They searched every corridor in the vicinity, but they couldn't find the kitchens. They even went all the way along the corridor to the Huffelpuff's common room and down into the dungeons a little. Exhausted they dragged themselves back up to the tower, where they toasted marshmallows and sat by the fire.

"Sirius, do you want to set up a prank for the girls when they come back?" James asked Sirius as the glowing embers of the fire began to die out.

"Of course I do! What sort of prank were you thinking of?" Sirius sounded excited.

"I don't know, just any old prank. Maybe we could make a prank book?" James suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Sirius said.

"I reckon that we should sleep on it." James said, Sirius agreed and they both went up to bed.

Later that night Sirius came up with a great idea, he and James spent the next week and a half planning it. They were barely even put off by Christmas and the howler Sirius got from his parents or that only a few students remained over the holidays.

The one distraction came in the last few days of the Christmas holidays. Sirius was out walking in the snow covered grounds to see if there were any natural resources that could be used for their prank, when he saw their astronomy teacher, Professor Dowding pointing his wand at the woods and muttering incantations Sirius didn't understand. A sense of foreboding crept over Sirius and he instinctively knew that he couldn't be seen; he crept backwards slowly and carefully.  
Luckily for Sirius, Professor Dowding didn't notice him, and Sirius hurried back up to the castle, where he wasted no time in telling James what he'd seen.

"He was probably just making sure that no-one could get into the castle or the grounds surrounding it." James said comfortingly. Sirius however wasn't so sure, but he cast it to the back of his mind.

Two days before the holiday came to an end, James and Sirius set up the girl's dorms. It took many levitating spells and a few colour change charms, but by the end of it, they were convinced it was perfect.

The day that the holidays ended, which was New Year's Day, James and Sirius retreated into their dorm and waited. Just as Remus arrived back, and he was about to enquire about their Christmas, the boys heard a high pitched, female scream coming from next door. The girl's had discovered what they had done to their dorm.


	14. Snakes

_Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I know, I'm a terrible person and stuff for not updating faster. How do you cope with me being so abysmal at updating? Anyway, two more chapters, then I'll be done with this story; I'll be done before 2013, just in case the world does end on Friday! By the way, does anyone actually believe we are going to die on the 21__st__?_

Chapter 14

Lily had not had a good Christmas. Petunia had been biased and angry and Severus hadn't come home, so Lily had had no-one to talk to for three weeks. Instead she had devoted all of her time into cooking for her family, cleaning the house slightly obsessively and writing to Marlene, Alice and Mary. Most of the holiday, Lily had been alone, isolated in the house. She didn't know anyone who lived near her, both of her parents had had to work all holiday and Petunia had been out at her friend's houses.  
All in all, Lily was so glad to be going back to Hogwarts, where she felt like she fitted in and no one flinched at the sight of her.

Her dad drove her to Kings Cross station, and Lily sat in bored silence for the entire journey, every so often, she'd look over at her dad, and maybe briefly catch his eye for a moment, but then he would look away very quickly, almost as though he was afraid to look at her.

'Oh good,' Lily thought to herself, 'My own father is afraid of me.'

At the station, Lily's father grabbed her trunk, and put it on a trolley which rolled into the station for her. When the got to the barrier, Lily's dad hugged her quickly.

"Have a good term Lil, see you next summer." He turned, but Lily grabbed his hand.

"Am I not coming home for Easter?" Lily asked.

"Oh yeah, we are taking Petunia on holiday to Cyprus for two weeks, it's been booked months in advance, I'm sorry Lily, but you can just stay at Hog- your school for two weeks, and come home over the summer."

"Well, it looks like you have it all decided," Lily said coldly, "Thank you for consulting me about this, goodbye father."

Lily turned and walked off through the barrier, leaving her dad staring after her regretfully.

As soon as she sat on down on the train, Lily began to cry a little bit. Why would her parents abandon her for Petunia?

The sound of the compartment door sliding open made her look up and wipe her eyes hurriedly as she saw that it was a cute second year boy with floppy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and a charming smile.

"Hello, oh I'm sorry, is anyone sitting here?" he asked, smiling at Lily.

"No, please sit down." She said.

"Why thank you, Miss-?" he asked politely.

"Evans, Lily Evans." Lily replied.

"Well Miss Evans, what brings you to be sitting alone in a compartment, and looking all down and alone?"

Lily looked at the mysterious boy; he had sat down and was now looking at her with genuine concern.

"I'm sorry; I don't even know your name." Lily said.

"Ah, best not to question things you don't want to know." He and said, the he stood, bowed to Lily walked out of the compartment.

Lily shook her head in confusion, what had just happened?

The rest of the train journey passed without event, Lily practically hid from her friends, because she didn't want to have to be engaged in social pleasantries until the last possible moment.

It was only when she got back up to Hogwarts that she saw anyone that she wanted to speak to, yet she wasn't in the mood for talking to people, Severus was standing in the Entrance hall, alone, awkwardly waiting for Lily.

"Lily how was your holiday?" he rushed towards her, but Lily walked by him coldly.

"I'll see you tomorrow Severus." In the bronze statues shiny reflection, Lily watched his face fall and then it regained a stony quality.

Lily walked up seven flights of stairs to the portrait of the fat lady, before she realised that she didn't know the password, it had changed over the holidays. She was just preparing to go find someone, when she heard someone running, the rounded the corner, it was Marlene.

"Hey Lily, how was your Christmas?"

"Marlene,"

"Mine was amazing!"

"Marley,"

"My parents were horrible to each other, I'm pretty sure my father is having an affair with at least five people. But they both brought me and my brothers fabulously expensive presents, but they always buy us things like that, especially after a fight."

"Marlene!"

"But more on that later. Why are you just standing there? Oh yes, you wouldn't know the new password! Porta!"

Marlene grabbed one of Lily's bags, and then she casually walked through the door, and then turned to look at Lily.

"Are you coming or what then?" she asked, Lily smiled.

"Coming." Oh it was good to be home.

However, this realisation was short lived; indeed, it only lasted for as long as it took the two witches to walked across the common room, up four flights of stairs and into their dorm.

"What the-?" Lily asked for a spilt second, before she began screaming.

Snakes were all over the dorm. Hung on their beds, snaking around the poles all over the floor. It was horrible; it reminded Lily far too vividly the horrible occasion of three years ago.  
Marlene was also screaming, even higher pitched than Lily if that was possible.

A bunch of doors banged around them, and other girls came racing into their dorm. Most of them began screaming as well, the fifth year prefect Alison ran out of the dorm to get Professor McGonagall.  
Eventually Lily realised that she was being stupid, she ran out of the dorm and down into the common room, she collapsed into a sofa and began to hyperventilate majorly.

Alison and Professor McGonagall came into the common room and they went directly up the girl's staircase. The boys were standing around in the common room, looking up the staircase in confusion.  
Then a few of the older years noticed Lily.

"What's going on up there?" asked a tall third year boy.

Lily simply shook her head; she couldn't even begin to explain the horror of the snakes.

It took at least three hours for Professor McGonagall to vanish all of the snakes and to calm down all of the girls.

"If I ever, I repeat ever, find out who did this, they will get so many detentions that they will not have any free time until next year." With that she turned and walked out of the common room. After a few seconds of stunned silence, people turned to their neighbour to discuss who could have done such a thing.

"Lily, are you ok?" Marlene had come down, and she was looking concernedly at Lily.

"Yeah, fine." Lily heard herself say.

"God I hate snakes." Marlene muttered. Lily silently agreed, nut she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

A little while later, most people had gone up to bed, but Lily was still sitting in the common room, when James and Sirius came down, laughing. They stopped laughing when they saw her.

"Hey Evans, good holiday?" Sirius asked lightly.

"Just brilliant," Lily said sourly, "until we discovered quite a few snakes in the dorm. Then it went mostly downhill."

"Well who could have done that?" James asked mysteriously.

"I know it was you two." Lily said angrily, standing up suddenly.

"Got any evidence?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"No, but I do know that it was you! It was a really horrible thing to do." Lily shouted, and then she took a deep breath and walked up the stairs to her dorm.

"What a great first day back." Lily said to herself, and then she began to get ready for bed.


	15. Battles over being a man

Chapter 15

January

After James and Sirius' prank on the first day back, they decided that they had better lie low, especially in the eyes of a certain redhead called Lily Evans. Not that it really bothered them, but she was a bit annoying especially when she got on her high horse about breaking the rules. So instead they decided to explore the castle only during daylight hours. Sirius often got caught in the trick stairs.

James sent frequent letters to his mother and she often updated him on his father's health, there were good days and bad days, but he was finally out of hospital and he wasn't all that weak, but in all of his mother's letters she reminded him that his dad was dying. Whenever James got to this part in his letters, he would throw them into the fire without a second glance. One time Sirius had asked him what this was all about.

"Mate, why do you throw letters from your parents in the fire?" he asked, sitting next to James on the sofa in front of the fire.

"Just from my mum actually, and they depress me far too much." James replied morosely.

"Oh, well at least you get letters from your parents; the last one I got was one telling me not to go home for Christmas, because apparently I'm an embarrassment to my family."

"Ah mate, don't be silly, they are the embarrassments, to the entire human race."

After that, James saved all of the letters from his mum and replied far more frequently than he had before.

It only snowed a little in January and Remus had to visit his mother once more, she was getting worse, and James could sympathise with this. All in all nothing all that eventful happened.

February

Valentine's Day was a complete nightmare for all of the first years, James received a few from older year girls, but he didn't send any to any girls, he felt too young anyway. It snowed a little more; James tried to have a snowball fight with Sirius, but it didn't work, the snow simply melted into slush, which was disappointing.

Also, James and Sirius started a tradition, although they didn't know it. It all began one afternoon, during a charms practical.

"Sirius, I bet that I could beat you at getting this spell." James said, he was bored and being cocky was what he did best. It was only Incendio, but still.

"What is that supposed to mean? That I'm not as good as you? Or that I'm not as strong as you?" Sirius demanded.

"No, that you aren't as manly as me." James said triumphantly.

"Oh yeah, sure. Well I declare a manly match, lasting until we have a winner of supreme manliness!" Sirius yelled.

"How will we decide who is the winner?" James asked.

"We will get an unbiased jury; an odd number of people will be needed. How about Remus, Peter and Frank?" Sirius suggested.

"It's settled." James said. After the lesson, they requested Remus, Peter and Frank's presence in the dorm.

"So how should we begin?" James began unsurely. Sirius replied by smacking a pillow in James' face.

James blinked in surprise, and then grabbed the nearest pillow off of the nearest bed.

"Hey!" Peter yelled, "That's mine!"

However neither James nor Sirius appeared to be listening, they were too busy with hitting each other with the pillows.

An hour later both boys were lying on the floor, exhausted from their battle.

"So who won?" Sirius asked finally.

"We will have to discuss, but I feel as though there should be more than one round, maybe five rounds instead?" Frank asked.

"Sounds fair enough, now boys, leave us be, we must discuss who has won round one." Remus said, and he shooed out Sirius and James.

Standing outside James and Sirius shifted uncomfortably, neither of them were speaking, they were too tense, which was surprising considering that it was only round one.

"You may enter." Peter said half an hour later.

Both boys walked in and sat on beds that were next to each other.

"Well first, points were given to Sirius for making the first move, so to speak." Frank said.

"That makes it sound like me and Sirius are a couple!" James exclaimed. Remus merely rolled his eyes and moved on.

"However, James got in the last hit and therefore-"

Sirius picked up a pillow and hit James in the face, and then he looked at Remus.

"It doesn't count, the round is over."

"Fine." Sirius sighed.

"Altogether, we must say that, Sirius won round one." Peter squeaked.

Sirius jumped up and whooped, he punched the air. James also stood up and groaned.

"Round two will be played in March!" said Remus.

"Why March?" James asked.

"Time for you to come up with some form of retaliation." Remus chuckled and James sighed sadly.

"Also the winner will be allowed to come up with some sort of public humiliation for the loser, extra incentive I should think." Frank said.

"Oh it's on!" Sirius shouted.

"Suck it Sirius! I'm going to win!" James yelled.

"No way!" Sirius yelled.

"Yes way!" James yelled back.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Ladies please be quiet." Remus said stepping between them. James and Sirius glared, whilst Frank and Peter laughed openly.

"Remus, I have a question, can we butter you up a bit?" Sirius asked suddenly an idea forming in is mind.

"You can, but I can't say if it will help or not." Remus said, smiling.

March

"Hello all, I don't know if you all know who I am," Sirius had stood up in the middle of breakfast and climbed onto a table, knocking James' morning pumpkin juice out of the way with his foot.  
James moaned to Remus, but he was only half listening, most of concentration was used up staring at his friend on the table.

"So if you don't, I'm Sirius Black, and I just wanted to say, Remus, uhm, Awesome Lupin is my best friend and a completely amazing person, and I know that he wouldn't rule against me in anything ever!" Sirius beamed at the stunned silence at the hall.

"Oh please, carry on eating." He said politely after a few more moments of incredulous silence. Then he turned to Remus and looked pointedly at him.

"James, you'd better up your game, at this rate Sirius will win easily." Peter whispered in James' ear. James was having none of that, he grabbed the nearest pitcher of pumpkin juice and threw it at Sirius. Unfortunately Sirius ducked at the last moment, and the juice hit both Gideon and Fabian Prewitt in the faces.

They looked slowly at James, and then threw their bacon at him, but he moved quickly and it hit Lily Evan's hair. James groaned under his breath as she turned around slowly and felt the bacon in her hair. She then turned a menacing gaze upon James.

"What the hell were you thinking Potter?" she asked angrily.

"It wasn't me!" James said.

"Why do I not believe you?" she said coldly.

"Because in your mind, everything is clearly my fault." James stated, meeting her cold eyes.

"You're such, such an insufferable git!" she yelled, and then she stormed out of the hall, her friends in Gryffindor followed her, but they didn't seem to be angry, in fact most of them were laughing quietly.

James turned back to his food, only to be greeted by a warm slap in the face with a bowl of Sirius' porridge. After that all hell broke loose. A full on food war raged for ten minutes, until a piece of kipper hit Professor McGonagall in the face, squarely.  
The two weeks' worth of detentions were well worth it, both James and Sirius reckoned afterwards.

James was declared the winner of that round for obvious reasons.

April

Remus decided that the third and final round, because no one could be bothered to do anymore, would be a simple running race. However when you're a wizard, nothing is quite that straight forward. Both boys started in Gryffindor tower, in their dorm and first one down to the Great Hall would win. However if a teacher told them off for running or Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, spotted them, they would be disqualified.

Frank was at the start, Remus at the finish and various people who found it amusing were in the middle, standing guard and making sure neither boy cheated.

The final rule for the race was that they had to carry a bucket of water on their heads, and the one with the most water would also be considered the winner, no magic allowed. To make sure that both boys played by the rules, Remus confiscated both of their wands.

"Ok, are you ready James? Sirius?" Frank asked them in the dorm.

"I'm ready." Agreed James.

"I was born ready." Muttered Sirius.

"On your marks." They tensed.

"Get set." Both boys crouched into a sprint position.

"Go!" Frank yelled, and they were off.

James had already decided that he should take the main staircase route, but on his way down the staircase, neck and neck with Sirius, he decided that this would be far too boring and slow, so he took off down the fifth floor corridor, to a secret passage that would take him down three floors faster than they had gone down the previous two. As long as he didn't get his foot caught in the trick step.

But of course he did.

James' heart was racing, he needed to get his foot out, so he could beat Sirius, but no one was coming his way, so he willed himself to slowly wiggle his foot out. It was slow and tedious work, but finally he thought he'd got his foot out, so he jumped down the remaining stair and a horrific crack as heard, and pain shot up his entire leg.

James felt like screaming, but he bit his lip down incredibly hard. After what felt like an eternity the pain subsided slightly and he was able to look down at his ankle, but he didn't like what he saw.

The bone was poking out of his foot completely, when James saw this, he nearly fainted, but he gritted his teeth and set to work, slowly prying his ankle, carefully out of the hole. It was slow and painful work, but James had realised that he couldn't just stand there forever, waiting for someone to rescue him.

Two hours later, James made it down the remaining five flights of stairs, to the entrance hall. Only Sirius and Remus were left, everyone else having gotten bored and the crowds had dispersed hours ago.

"James mate, what took you so long?" Sirius joked, and then he saw how white James was and how he was limping heavily.

"James, what happened?" Remus asked, they rushed over to him and caught him as he fell off of his ankle.

"Just this darn ankle." James said weakly, a fair attempt at humour.

"Sirius, go and get Professor McGonagall." Remus said, and then James heard Sirius run off, and felt Remus act as a crutch to help him over to the stairs and sit down.

"Thanks mate." James said and then he fainted from the pain.

Later he'd find out that he'd fractured his ankle in two places, which resulted in Madame Pomfery keeping him in the Hospital Wing overnight.

May

_Dear James,_

_How could you be so reckless? And why did you wait so long to tell us about your ankle? I thought that Hogwarts would be a calming influence on you, but clearly not._

_Your father sends his love; these past weeks have been good weeks, at least the healers now know what's wrong with him, but I'll tell you more on that when you come home. I'd rather that I didn't have to say at all, but your father is very persistent about me telling you._

_I hope that you are studying hard for your exams next month!_

_Love,_

_Mum._

James re-read the short letter to him and a slight twinge of shame pricked him, he hadn't been thinking about his father that much, he had gotten carried away with Hogwarts stuff. From then on he resolved to be a better son, even if it meant revising.

When James suggested the idea to Sirius, he laughed for half an hour straight. Until Remus reminded him that he needed to pass these exams to make it into their second year.

"Maybe I'll drop out." Sirius muttered gloomily when he saw the revision timetables Remus had drawn up for them.

"And spend all day at home with your family?" James asked with a chuckle.

"Actually, let's get this revision started with then!" Sirius said very quickly and James laughed.

"You realise next summer is the Quidditch world cup?" Peter asked them, he'd just come bouncing into the common room after a detention with Slughorn for not doing his potions homework.

"Yeah, but I can't go." James said sadly.

"I highly doubt my parents will take my anywhere." Sirius said without looking up.

"My parents can't afford it." Remus said sadly.

"Oh." Was all Peter had to say.

June

All of the exams were easy in James' opinion. He passed everything easily and no one in their year was told not to go on to the next year, he came top or close enough of every class with Evans, Sirius and Remus vying with each other for top positions.  
In all honesty, he was a little homesick, so nothing held his attention for long, until their last day of their first year.

_Now that chapter took effort to write! Nearly at the end, I promise. I'll probably be starting the next one after Christmas or some time like that! Much thanks for reading and please, please, pretty please review, even if it's only an idea for my stories, anything and everything is greatly appreciated!_


	16. Blood stained grass

_Sorry that I didn't update sooner, my entire family and I are been so ill with the stupid norovirus, more reasons why I hate winter. So finally, the final chapter! I know that it's been ages since I started this story, but what can I say? I have the worst attention span ever, so please feel free to throw things like rocks at my head! Anyway, on with the chapter! I'll write a little thank you at the end of the chapter. ;)_

_C_hapter 16

The final day at Hogwarts before the summer dawned bright and beautiful, as Lily awoke, she felt as though her life had taken a definite turn for the better, it was summer, she had passed all of her exams very well, they had six weeks off for the summer and for two of those weeks she was going with her family to Portugal, she wasn't going to see Potter or Black for any of those weeks and she was going to Marlene's for the final week of the summer. Truly her life was very good; nothing could go wrong on that final day, little did she know how wrong she was.

Lily stood in the early morning light, the alarm clock on her bedside table told her that it was half six, Lily smiled contentedly, her friends were still asleep, which meant that she had first dibs to the bathroom and she had all of the hot water to use.  
Once she'd washed her hair in the shower, (with her favourite shampoo, strawberry) Lily got dressed and performed a quick harm to dry her hair. The auburn waves fell neatly into place and she clipped it up quickly.

"Lily, get out of the bathroom, the rest of us need to get ready!" Marlene banged on the door and Lily unlocked the door and opened it to reveal her blonde friend standing by the door with an extreme bedhead hairstyle, Lily giggled and Marlene glared at her and barged her way through into the bathroom.  
The other two girls in the dorm (Alice and Mary) were in a state of undress when Lily walked in, they both looked half asleep.

"You guys looking forward to the holidays?" Lily asked chirpily. They both glared at her and didn't answer.

Half an hour later Lily left the tower alone, it was half seven in the morning, but she felt wide awake and she was hungry.  
The common room was deserted, or so Lily thought upon first glance.

"Lily?" a voice spoke from the sofa, Lily looked over in shock, Remus was sitting there reading their Transfiguration textbook.

"Oh hello Remus, sorry but I didn't see you there." Lily replied civilly. She didn't have anything for or against Remus, he was Potter and Black's friend, but he never seemed to torment Malfoy in the same way that they did, also he clearly cared about his studies, Lily figured they could at least exchange pleasantries

"Are you going down to breakfast?" Remus spoke first breaking the awkward silence.

"Yeah, are you coming?" Lily asked. Remus glanced up at the boy's staircase; he then folded down the page in his book and sighed deeply.

"Sure Lily, I was going to wait for the other boys, but really I'm too hungry to wait any longer."

He stood and together they walked out of the common room and descended a flight of stairs in another awkward silence.

"So Remus," Lily said more to break the silence than anything else, "how were your results for the tests?"

"Mine were pretty good, as they should be; I revised for months before these exams, what about yours?" Remus asked.

"Really good actually, I didn't do as well at Transfiguration, it's such a stupid subject, I studied extra hard for that one, and still I didn't do as well." Lily sighed, Remus smiled.

"I'm not so good at Potions, but you are amazing at that." Lily laughed.

"Well it's mainly Sev doing the work, he's brilliant, but I guess I'm fair at it."

"Fair at it? Don't be so modest, Slughorn practically loves you!" Remus smiled at her, by now they had reached the Great Hall and upon entering they saw how deserted it was, only five other students were already in there.

"Where is everyone?" Lily asked in a confused tone.

"It's the last day of term; I'll bet they are all having a lie in." Remus said, they reached the Gryffindor table at the far end of the hall and sat down opposite each other.

"What are you doing over the summer Remus?" Lily asked whilst buttering herself some toast.

"I'm staying at home for the holiday; I think I'm going to visit James one weekend, but nothing too spectacular, and yourself?" Lily had glowered at James' name, but she brightened up considerably and began to tell Remus about Portugal.

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Lily, and because it was the last day, they only did lessons up until lunch and after lunch they had to pack. All of the seventh years were tearfully hugging each other and preparing for their private graduation ceremony.

However the only notable event of that day happened when all of the students were walking down to the carriages in Hogsmeade, this involved walking down the Hogwarts drive and then round a corner. The moment that they got out of the Hogwarts drive, Lily noticed a dark forest, which almost looked like it was moving and that it was hiding people, sure enough she was right.

Twelve tall men walked out of the forest, they were all brandishing wands and blocking the student's path down into Hogsmeade. The first years were at the back of the crowd as was customary, so none of them could see or hear anything, but when the flashes of light started, they could see alright.

The next few minutes were a blur to Lily, she drew her wand and tried to aim, but the mass of panicking students was too much and she fell to the ground and she was surely about to be trampled, when a tall figured offered her his hand. She nodded her thanks to him and then tried to run forward, but he held her back.

"Are you stupid little girl?" he asked her forcefully, "Stay back, stay hidden, you can't help, leave the fighting to the seventh years and the teachers, I'm telling you this for your own good." And then he was gone.

Lily briefly saw Professor Martell run through the crowd and shield a group of seven third years from a jet of green light. It hit her squarely in the chest and she crumpled to the ground. Dumbledore arrived and he shot golden flames at the attackers, they vanished, but first one of them conjured a green skull into the sky.

It took at least half an hour to calm down the panicking students, eventually they all began walking down to the village, carefully stepping over the bodies on the ground. Only one of the attacking men was dead, he was completely drained of blood.

As Lily looked back at the scene, she saw that the grass and the soil had stained a bright blood red; she gasped and began to shake.

On the train, all of the first years sat together in a deafening silence; every so often a panicked relative would come past and ask them if they'd seen their siblings.

"James, James!" The tall boy who'd helped Lily came into the compartment just as the train passed under a bridge.

"Will, I'm fine." James said briefly.

"I was just checking, ah Miss, you are ok as well, nice to see that you heeded my advice." He smiled at James and then winked at Lily and walked out of their compartment.

"Who was that?" Marlene asked James.

"My cousin William Dearborn, our families are very close." James said, "How does he know you Evans?" Lily blushed slightly under everyone's scrutiny.

"He basically saved me back there." She said.

That was all the conversation in the compartment until they got back to the station, and then it was only limited to 'I'll miss you', 'Promise to write over the summer', 'Have a good summer' and 'I'll see you next year'.

Lily got off of the train, her trunk on a cart in front of her and owl in her left hand. She, Marlene, Mary and Alice exited through the barrier together; they hugged and then departed in different directions, Lily made a beeline for her mother.

"Hey mum." She said and hugged her.

"Hey Lily, you ready to go home?" Lily nodded, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't really going home, and the last face she saw before she left the station was James Potter's and his impish smile directed towards her as if saying, 'Til next year Evans.' Lily sighed, but secretly she was looking forward to it.

_Thank god, it's the end! Only an author's note to come after this. So anyway, a massive thank you to, __**Blue Luver5000, IceBarbie, Starkid191, The Fluffyfluffball of Doom **__and any other dedicated readers to this story for continued support and reviewing all the time and sticking with it, even with my lousy updating abilities!_


	17. Author's note

So this is my authors note and this is important, SO PLEASE READ IT!

I've decided that writing the Marauders second and third years will be so incredibly boring, that I'll never update and everyone will hate me. I refuse to do it. So I'll be starting their fourth year once I'm done with this, with reasonable flashbacks to the other two years, but trust me nothing important will happen over those two years.

Maybe I'll go back and write them once I'm done with this series. But basically I don't cope well with boredom and the next two years will be, because let's face it, no-one wants to read another two years where there is no potential for any Jily cuteness. But I've decided fourth year is the ideal place to be starting at, because that's when all of the important drama starts! Like fights, drama, relationshipness ect.

So I hope no-one hates me too much for skipping two years, and I'll see you with a new chapter in the new year, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!


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